The Berserker King, Shin Kenpachi
by VeralicProductions
Summary: Shin Kenpachi, a rogue shinigami, lives only to fight the most glorious fight of his after-life. With the power of Death itself at his side, nothing can stand in his way. Set long before current BLEACH story. OCs, Epic length more than a year
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

Notice: This story is not set within the normal story line of BLEACH. It takes place a few thousand years beforehand (before the Academy was founded), and many of the ideas presented are fan-made and are not to be considered within the context of the BLEACH universe.

* * *

In this world there are spiritual beings known as 'shinigami', or Gods of Death. These beings co-exist in our world to protect it from demonic creatures known as 'hollows'. When a person died, a shinigami comes to judge them and either sends them to righteous afterlife, or into the pits of Hell. Those who are innocent enough to ascend into the afterlife are reborn as shinigami themselves, but to a lesser degree, and live their lives normally in a New World.

This is the story of a young man, killed in war, and filled with the regret of never having a satisfying death. This young man was found and judged by a shinigami to live in the afterlife as a spirit, but even the prospect of life after life gave the young man's soul no hope. Lost and alone, the young man wandered through the vast expanse of the villages that bordered a great walled city, Seireitei, until he was approached by a man whose eyes were filled with evil.

"Hey you!" the burly looking man said, pointing to the young wanderer, "Move aside! This is my town and you ain't welcome in it."

The young man's gaze never left the dirt road he had been treading across. He had heard of the town in question, Zaraki. It was the absolute worst of the many districts that he had ever passed through. All his life, for nearly 20 years after his first death, he had been dodging attackers and hiding in plain sight, waiting for the righteous shinigami to come to his aid. It had never happened.

"HEY! I'm talking to you, PUNK!" With that insult, the burly bandit gave the young man a swift kick in the stomach that knocked him back a good distance. He struggled to stand, but couldn't bring himself up from a crawling position. From there he spat out the blood that had gathered in his mouth and dug his nails into the dirt and clenched his teeth.

_Why_ he thought while enduring the pain, _Why can't I fight?_ Another swift kick to the stomach sent him crashing through a poorly upheld shack.

_I used to be strong, always fighting and always winning. Dammit! This is unfair!_

He was so lost in his though to notice that the bandit had brandished a sword over his head.

I want to help people! I want to live! I… 

The bandit swung downward.

_**I want to fight!!!**_

The bandit's blade had stopped. Surprise and fear had overcome him. He was looking down at a bleeding, dying soul with a sword clenched tightly in had that had come out of nowhere. The young man wielding the sword seemed to be equally surprised, but was overcome with anticipation rather than fear. He almost effortlessly pushed his attacker's sword away and rose to his feet with a deathly-cold look on his face.

The bandit recovered and re-armed himself before going off on a tangent of fury and desperation.

"Listen you, do you know who I am!? My name is Taro Kenpachi, a name that I inherited by killing the most enemies and the former wielder of the title! Do you think you have a chance against me! Well?"

The young man had rested his sword on his shoulder, not bothering to look at his adversary when he replied in an apathetic voice.

"So, if I kill you, I get that title, right? Very well then." He turned to meet the frightened bandit's gaze and grinned a horrible grin of blood lust and feverish killing desire.

"From now on," he began, "I will be named Shin." He raised his sword and pointed it at his opponent's face. "And in a few seconds, I'll add Kenpachi to it" He licked away a speck of drool that had escaped his lips when he thought of this.

_I will be feared again as I was in life. I have a weapon, I have power…I have a name._

They charged each other screaming. It was over in a second, and in that second, Shin Kenpachi was born.

* * *

This is the story of a man with immense power, the man that made the name 'Kenpachi' a thing of legend. This is the story of death himself as he stalks the land of the Soul Society in search of the ultimate fight. 


	2. Challenger

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Everyone in the terrifying town had heard of this man. He lived in the wilderness and fought any challenge that approached him. Shin Kenpachi, the man who had slain a fearful tyrant that had previously threw the title of 'greatest fighter' around him. No one, not even the shinigami guards, dared to venture out into the wilderness that that fearsome man occupied. At least, not since the last twenty shinigami and rambunctious bandits never came back from their fights.

This trend continued until an up and coming young fighter emerged from the bloody mist into the town of murder and chaos. His name was a mystery, and his head was nearly bald. This was the only discernable characteristic that could be seen from afar. His head wasn't completely bald, as he did have a rather long pigtail formed from the hair on the back of his head. He also had a four-point star tattooed on his forehead, in the shape of an X, which was blood colored.

Pedestrians were ducked and hiding behind whatever they could find for cover, hoping this crazy looking man would pass them by. His narrow eyes scanned the street for signs of life with a smirk on his face. He had heard the noise of people whispering in hiding, figuring they had seen plenty of nasty crap go down that when a stranger waltzed through town they knew what to do. Still, he inhaled and perked his head before shouting

"WHERE IS THIS SMUG SON-OF-A-BITCH THEY CALL **KENPACHI!?!?**"

He perked up his ears in wait for a response. No one dared to move, now that they had been discovered. Some stopped breathing for fear that words may accidentally form when they exhaled. The man of madness and mystery looked around for a sign, this time smiling even wider. He began to start walking towards a group of people, arms outstretched, and began questioning.

"Do you folks know? Come on." He threw his arms back to his sides. He rolled his head around and gave out a "Tch" loud enough for the people to hear, then edged his hand slowly towards the sword at his side. He stopped before he could get his fingers wrapped around the hilt, noticing a young girl standing in the middle of the wide and dusty road. Her stare was ice-cold. The warrior turned to her and started approaching, this time holding his sword's red and gold wrapped hilt. He got close enough to eye the girl straight down. She began speaking first.

"What is your name, sir?" She said in almost monotone, flexing her voice only high enough for him to know it was a question.

"Hoji. Araijin Hoji." He said bluntly.

The young girl turned slightly to her right and pointed down the road, never letting her eyes off of his.

"He's down that way, in the forest." She said, still cold as ice. Hoji picked up his head and smiled triumphantly at the distance. He patted the girl on the head as he passed her, then started to sprint full speed down the road. When he was gone from everyone's vision, several people started to wearily step out. A woman ran out and straight to the girl, who was still just standing like a statue in the middle of the road.

"Atsuko! What were you thinking!? That man could have killed you in a second!" She threw her hands around the girl, who still did not move.

"He wouldn't kill me." She said sternly, but without breaking her robotic tone. "I saw it in his eyes. He won't die either." Many people around her who had heard this coiled back in shock. Not a single person returned from that horrible forest.

"How can you be so sure of that, Atsuko?"

"Because," the girl began, this time turning around to gaze in the direction the man had fled, "he doesn't think he'll die." Everyone coiled back even more. All of the challengers were sure of their victory as well, but they were all still dead.

"He's just like the man he's going to fight. He won't win, of course, but he won't die. It won't be long until they _both_ come walking down the street."

Atsuko never made a wrong guess about the victims. One charged in and she added his name to a personal list of people who the man had killed. She always planned on giving him that list just to have, and she knew she would soon get her chance. Everyone else, however, was panicking and throwing frenzied fits to pack up their belongings and leave. Drawing from Atsuko's track record of being right, they had to leave immediately.

* * *

Hoji was standing in a clearing and staring at an uncomfortable sight. There lay his pray, helpless and asleep, with his sword resting on his torso. There was dried blood on the trees and red-stained patches of grass in many directions. A small cave was covered with tattered clothing that had been hastily hung on the rocky surface of the stone wall. Most notable, within the strange scene, was a makeshift graveyard, each victims sword acting as a grave marker for a body that was not there. The ground around the swords showed no sign of ever being moved, and a barely noticeable path had been made near the swords, which obviously led to the actual bodies somewhere else.

_This guy's no joke. There must be at least twenty swords stuck in the ground. And he's just been waiting for people to come by and kill him all this time? Unreal._

Hoji folded his arms and sat against a nearby tree. He never took his eyes off of his challenge.

_Guess I'll just wait 'til he wakes up and challenge him then. There's no honor in killing a sleeping man, monster or not._


	3. Disciple

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin woke from his dream wearily. He acknowledged the presence of another in the area while he was still sleeping, but sensed no need for urgency. Slowly, Shin turned his head to the man who was leaning against the tree. The man in turn opened one eye and smirked at Shin.

"Yo. Sleep well?" the stranger asked. Shin turned himself around and sat up, staring at the stranger with tired eyes.

"Yeah. Who are you?" Shin asked sounding half-asleep. The other man stood up and took a single step forward. Then he put his hand on his sword and the other on the sheathe.

"I am Araijin Hoji," he said as he drew out his sword then continued, "the man who will slay you."

Shin let out a sigh and rose to his feet, pushing on his knees for balance. He too drew out his sword, but in a much more sloppy way. Holding it with one hand and scratching the back of his head with the other he announced to his opponent

"Go home, kid. I'm tired." With that he walked away and towards his cave. Before he could draw back the curtain of cloth, Hoji made a dash after him with sword pointed at him. Hoji was screaming as he ran, and he thrusted his sword forward with all his force into the curtain door to the cave. Shin dodged the blow with insane speed, and was now sheathing his sword behind Hoji.

"Like I said," Shin began in a louder voice now, "you should go home. Those swords over there aren't just for decoration. If you fight me," he said, now looking up and Hoji through the shadow over his brow, "you _will_ die."

A great force smashed Hoji backwards and threw him to the ground. He coughed in pain as the recognition of Kenpachi's attack took hold. He fell to his knees and attempted to gather himself.

_When did he attack me? When he dodged me? No…that's impossible._ Hoji stood up wavering and bent over to cough out some spit. Then, straightening himself out, he turned to face his monstrous enemy with an excited grin on his face. Shin looked at him puzzled. Pain had never made his other enemies smile like this.

"Don't you fear death?" Shin asked in a blunt way. Hoji licked his lips and took an offensive stance with his sword, pointing it with both hands at Kenpachi's throat.

"Nah," he replied still eagerly grinning from ear to ear, "death is just a motivator to fight as hard as I can. Anything short of death in battle," he charged forward, now screaming his thoughts, "is no way to die!" Shin observed his motions and swayed minutely before jumping clear over Hoji's attack. He raised his sword over his head in the air and threw his whole body back before landing.

Hoji lifted his sword to block the attack, but couldn't stop it. Shin's sword shattered the ground from beneath them both as it crashed down with tremendous force. Hoji was thrown back by the power of the attack but was able to keep his feet dug safely into the ground. He looked up, trying to ignore his new and bleeding wound across his shoulder, and saw Kenpachi standing with his sword resting on the back of his neck.

"Do you know your sword's name?" Shin asked abruptly. Hoji grasped his shoulder, trying to stave off the burning sensation that had just formed and looked at him puzzled.

"Many of the shinigami that decided to throw their lives away here spoke of the names of their swords. When they said those names they became more powerful, and their swords changed form." Shin paused as he raised his sword to his face and focused on it. "Each one was different and unique, but they still all died to my nameless sword. Each passing battle is one that I would have wished to learn from, but so far I have had no luck. Tell me," he now shifted his gaze to the stunned Hoji, "have you learned your sword's name?"

Hoji's expression had shifted from puzzled to startled, and now to furious. _Who does this guy think he is? Asking all these stupid-ass questions in the middle of a fight..._ He looked down at his sword now. _What __**is**__ your name?_ Shin could tell a lot about a person by just watching their reactions to his questions. He saw all he needed to see in Hoji's look. He saw that Hoji had temporarily forgotten the battle and was completely focused on his sword.

This was an opportunity that Shin didn't want to waste. In a flash, he was up against Hoji, ready to kill. A sweeping pain followed by a drowning sensation took hold of Hoji, and he faded out of consciousness with his mind blanking out to the words from a voice he didn't know.

_I am you

* * *

_

Hoji wearily lifted his eyes to meet his surroundings. He was inside of a cave, _Shin's most likely_, and felt comfortable warmth beside him. He heard the crackling of a fire and the pouring rain outside. He could smell burnt animal flesh that was roasting next to the fire. As he turned his head he noticed Shin sleeping with his sword in hand against a wall of the cave. Hoji could barely move his body, but he was able to use his arm to search for a trace of wounds on his stomach. He felt nothing.

"Sleep well?" Shin asked jokingly from across the cave. "I didn't stab you in the gut, I kicked you." Hoji was startled at this revelation, but Shin continued to explain without pause.

"You and I are very similar. We exist only to fight, and without the ability to do so, we are nothing in this world. You are unafraid of death, as am I. I thought to myself, why kill you when we can conquer much more together than on our own." Shin stood up to meet Hoji's defenseless and confused glare. Then, Shin continued his speech

"Let us learn our swords names and use them to wipe out the weak. Let's fight until we cannot fight any longer. Araijin," he took a step forward and extended his hand out to the man in bandages, "let's bleach this world with our enemy's blood!" For the first time Hoji felt fear as his eyes met with Kenpachi's madly grinning face. He could sense his fanatical desire for carnage and felt it crawling up from inside him as well. He threw out his hand to meet Kenpachi's, and the alliance was struck officially.

* * *

This is the story of a powerful man and his disciples. Hoji Araijin was the first of those disciples to join the King of Carnage on a never-ending quest to die a perfect death. 


	4. Tactful Battle

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin and Hoji walked down the dusty road, with Shin in the far front and Hoji trailing behind, eyeing the dirt as he walked on it. Occasionally, he would dart his eyes up to make sure Shin wasn't walking in another direction or trying to kill him. So far, Shin was just walking ahead with his sword in its sheathe, slumped on his shoulder. Hoji was thinking about his own sword the whole walk.

_Did you try to speak to me back there?_ He held his sword sheathe up to his eyes, trying in vain to communicate with it on a mental level. If it couldn't hear his thoughts, maybe it could hear his words.

"Who are you?" Hoji whispered dryly at his sword.

"I'm Shin Kenpachi" an eerily close voice answered. Hoji darted his eyes up yet again and was within centimeters of Shin's face. Hoji screamed out of terror and fell backwards, trying to shuffle away in panic. Shin straightened himself out, then turned around and continued walking. Hoji wasn't as amused as his new master obviously was.

"HEY! You promised me endless carnage, you know!" Hoji said, wagging his sword by the hilt at Shin. Shin threw up his hand and motioned Hoji to follow. Angrily and hesitantly, Hoji rose up to his feet and jogged up alongside Shin. He glanced to the side to try and get Shin's attention, but without result. He asked hesitantly,

"Do you know your sword's name?"

"No," Shin casually replied, still walking down the road. Hoji faced forward and walked to Shin's pace for a while.

* * *

The Shinigami guard was forming a line in front of a checkpoint where a group of travelers was detained and under heavy security. Word had it that Shin Kenpachi would be passing through the area soon. As luck, good and bad, would have it, two figures appeared on the horizon. A quick telescopic reconnaissance confirmed the good part of their luck: it was indeed Kenpachi, as well as another unknown man with a sword. The bad part was confirmed as well: they were indeed heading this way.

"Alright men," a large and rather plump man in shinigami robes announced in the back-most ranks, "our target has been confirmed and is coming this way. Ready your zanpakuto, and prepare an attack on my order!" Each of the shinigami in the line drew out their swords and held position warily. Some were shaking, others praying, and a minority were just staring with contempt at the two shadows in the distance. All of them, however, feared for their lives.

* * *

"Oh," Shin grunted, "looks like they found us out." Shin put his hand on his sword and began to draw it out. Hoji did the same, but more stylistically, spreading apart his feet and holding his sheathe to swing out his sword. Then, with both hands, pointed it over his shoulder at the unfortunate guards. They couldn't see the whole thing, but they knew they were in trouble.

"Wait for my signal, then charge." Shin said. He eyed the line carefully, picking out whom he was most eager to test, but found no one that would be a good fight. He eyed the middle, thinking that his best hope for a challenge would be to fight as many at once that he could. Hoji could pick off the stragglers as they ran away screaming. Shin took a step forward.

"Kill 'em"

Shin was at the front of the battle in an instant. While still in mid-flight, he swung his sword in a circle towards the unprepared soldiers to make a corkscrew looking slash while still moving forward. Hoji arrived relatively late to the battle, but soon enough to stab most of the stunned guards who had dropped their swords. Throughout the whole bloody romp, Hoji was smirking evilly. Shin's tactic drew on less of a challenge than he had hoped, but he was having fun. One cut would send some shinigami flying backwards.

Hoji's excitement peaked when he got disarmed. Though, he had really thrown his sword and killed someone with it, but he called it being disarmed. Even without his sword he was killing the shinigami that charged him. Most attacks were either completely negated by his sheer power or ignored due to the blood rush as he punched and kicked the poor outclassed fools into and through the checkpoint walls and barricades. The large commander was trying to run away from the whole ordeal, but Shin jumped in front of him with a maleficent look in his eyes.

"Where are you going, my round little friend?"

The commander reached for his sword, but couldn't find the time to grasp it after his arm was sliced off. Shin sighed lightly and jumped back to where he was before, cutting and slashing away at the shinigami that had given up hope of survival long ago. The commander slowly bled to death just outside the checkpoint entrance. Hoji had reclaimed his sword and cut open a hole in the wall of the rest stop, to find a family cowering in the corner. His wild impulse was over ridden by Shin's words from earlier:

"_The first tact of warfare I want you to follow is this: don't kill anyone that can't kill you. There's no challenge in that."_

Hoji snarled and ran out of the building in an attempt to rejoin the battle. He had arrived to a blood soaked war field, with Shin Kenpachi standing in the middle. Shin took his blood soaked hand and ran it across his robe, staining his otherwise dirty coat. Then he sheathed his sword and walked past the twitching body of the former commander. He looked down on the cowering vermin, and with a look of pure disgust, kicked him squarely in the stomach, sending the poor dying man flying into a tree. That man was now dead.

Hoji stared half amazed and half terryfied.

"Did he really deserve that?"

"Yes," Shin answered as his sword clicked to a close against its sheathe. Hoji twirled his sword around once before sheathing it, then walked up to Shin as he was pacing down the road again. Hoji kept his hand inclined on top of his sword's hilt and walked with his head held up high with delight.

"That was pretty fun" he said with a hint of laughter.

"It was okay." Shin replied dryly. "I just hope we caused enough trouble to fight a _real_ opponent." Hoji looked at him quizzically.

"What do ya mean? Those guys were real, right?"

Shin looked back at the blood-colored walls that were once white to see a family scurry out and run with full speed down the road. Hoji looked back to the same sight, the family he had left alive. Part of him felt angry for letting them all go so easily, as he could just barely make out a sword hanging loosely from the thread of a belt.

"Those were nobles," Shin said still walking, "and powerful ones, I'll bet. If we have any luck at all, they'll tell their friends about you and me." Hoji looked back at his now grinning companion in carnage. The grin was becoming more and more fierce with every step they took.

"They'll send an assassin, may be more than one, after us. _That_ will be an interesting fight."

* * *

Hoji looked surprised, but then when considering the aspect of fighting a man trained specifically to kill, he joined in Shin's smile. The two deadly phantoms strode down the road with a murderous gleam resonating from their eyes. From any distance, one could make out that they were killers, and drawing a sword to them meant death. 


	5. Brotherly Warfare

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The town guard had dispersed with the exception of two overly eager men with swords and white coats over their shinigami uniforms. These men were known as the 'Murderous Pair', two powerful young shinigami prodigies that had both mastered different forms of kido and were kendo experts.

Kagoya and Sasori stared down the road, a silent and captivated audience awing at them in the shadows. There had been rumors that the terrible killer Shin Kenpachi and his disciple Hoji Araijin were making their way into town. Kagoya and Sasori were determined to end the killing spree and make official names for themselves as great and powerful fighters.

Kagoya, the older of the two, had a rather jaded look in his eyes above his calm and almost happy smile. It looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, with stubble forming into short beard around his chin. His hair was greasy and unwashed, with visible specs of dirt in the matted mess, which ran down past his neck. He was only an inch or two taller than Sasori.

Sasori looked very young for his height and position. He had a very manic smile and equally manic eyes, which emphasized his stature as a 'younger-brother' figure. His hair was rust-colored, short and looked cleaner than Kagoya's, but not by much. Both wore their swords around their waists, with hands resting on the hilts. Kagoya's sword's hilt was wrapped tight in bulky, black cloth. Soasori's sword's hilt was the same color as his hair.

"When are these guys gonna get here, Kagoya?" Sasori asked.

"Dunno" Kagoya answered with his head tilted upward. "It's rather rude of them to make us wait like this." Kagoya twiddled his fingers lightly on the hilt of his sword, rattling it in its sheathe.

"Go, you two! Fight 'til the last! We believe in you!" Shouted the audience still hiding in the darkness behind their homes. Both fighter's were rather unmoved by the audiences cheers. If they really wanted to help than they'd have left town entirely. Unwanted casualties was a thing neither of them wanted to think about dealing with once they became heroes. Over the horizon, against the setting sun, two shadows came into view; One with sword resting over his shoulder, the other walking straight and mechanically.

* * *

Shin was walking backwards, lamenting that they were no longer walking _into_ the sunset, but rather _away_ from it to move forward. The whole concept seemed backwards to him. Hoji hadn't noticed, only thinking of the challenge that awaited them down the road. While walking, Shin was training him the whole time. From time to time they would take a day off of walking down the road and just spar, others they would meditate to harness their spiritual powers, and they were always trying to talk to their swords. Hoji had harnessed his spiritual power enough to be able to enhance his vision drastically, a strategy that proved useful in anticipating Shin's moves during spar matches.

"There's two of 'em up there. We killing them?" Hoji said with a smile on his face. Shin heard the question but refused to turn around to properly answer him.

"Probably. They got swords, right?" Hoji squinted his narrow eyes and saw every detail about them.

"Yeah."

"Then if they attack us, we gotta kill 'em" Shin declared as he spun around almost in mid-air to face the closing in village ahead of them. With his hands resting comfortably in his pockets, Shin marched up ahead of Hoji, then disappeared in a wisp of dust. Hoji barely noticed, since he could do the same thing, but looked confused as to where exactly Shin had gone.

_He missed the two with swords. Ah well. _

A cold shock rushed down the backs of the daredevil duo as they had just come to notice that Shin Kenpachi was now behind them and laying down on the porch of some unlucky civilian's house. Both men turned around and drew out their swords in a flash to face the wild man they had come to tame. Shin failed to acknowledge them initially, so Sasori decided to provoke him.

"Are you Shin Kenpachi?"

Shin didn't move.

"Because after today," Kagoya interjected, "you'll be the _late_ Shin Kenpachi.

Shin still didn't move. No a single muscle on his body twitched to the duo's taunts. This angered Sasori and Kagoya, though Kagoya just frowned whereas Sasori started shouting.

"IDIOT! SHOW US SOME RESPECT! We came all the way from the neighboring city, where we're honored as local heroes, to fight you! Draw your sword and prepare to die!"

Shin started snoring. He had been walking a long time and wanted to initiate battle in a suave a way as possible, so he was going to rest at the first opportunity to do so. When the two swordsmen noticed this, their reactions split apart. Sasori was stunned with anger and shock, while Kagoya had fallen over laughing.

Hoji arrived just in time to get a grip on the scene at hand, which reminded him of a lesson that Shin had taught him earlier:

"_Never attack a swordsman's back, it's a disgrace to me and all other powerful warriors. If I find a scar on a man's back that you caused, I'm kicking your ass twelve times!"_

Hoji just stood with arms crossed behind the still stunned Satori and snickered lightly. By the time his presence had been registered, Sasori was ready to fight. He spun around with flaring anger in his eyes and swung at the unarmed Hoji. A slight side step and Sasori's sword was stuck in the ground, with Hoji leaning over him and looking down.

"You ain't very good with your kill-stick, are ya?"

Sasori glared up, and Kagoya slumped himself to a stand. Sasori jerked his sword out as Hoji drew out his, while Kagoya walked casually over to Shin and tapped him on the shoulder. Shin perked himself up, having forgotten that his opponents were ready to fight be fore he was, and fixed an eye to Kagoya.

"You need a longer nap before we fight, or are you good to go?" Kagoya said almost smugly with a wink thrown in for good measure. Shin smirked and raised to his feet. Head still bobbing downward, he put a steady hand on the hilt of his sword and drew it out into the air. He looked up at Kagoya through the murderous shadow under his brow and said with an evil sneer

"Anytime, pal." Kagoya smiled and charged with sword grasped in both hands.


	6. Power Release

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The villagers watched in collective awe and terror as the self-renowned swordsman were fighting two veritable demons. Sasori was busy furiously slashing and hacking away at the still grinning and demeaning Hoji, who blocked every stroke with one hand on his sword. Kagoya and Shin were fighting in a rather bored manner, neither taking the bout seriously and cutting through the air slowly compared to Sasori.

"Come on," Sasori shouted over the clashing of blades, "fight me seriously!" Hoji just dodged and blocked with a playful sneer on his face. Suddenly, Sasori's sword was jerked out of his hand and Hoji face was within inches of his.

"How can I fight you on a serious level if you can't even hold you sword properly." Hoji had caught the blade with his hand and gripped it tight enough to pull it away without drawing blood. He tossed the sword back to Sasori, who fumbled with it before resuming his stance. Hoji walked a few feet away then signaled his opponents forward with a cocky hand gesture. Sasori snarled and extended his arm with an open palm.

"You won't make a fool of me!" He hand started to glow with a fiery blaze. Hoji glared at this spectacle curiously, observing what exactly was going on. He could feel Sasori's energy being poured into his hand and concentrated into a visible ball of light.

"_Hiyari…"_ The ball began to spike forward from Sasori's palm, and Hoji felt a shiver go down his spine. He knew his head was in the way of whatever was about to happen, and that was bad.

"_HOU!"_ A beam of orange light blasted out from Sasori's hand, which Hoji barely dodged in time. The attack was so quick that the only part of his body Hoji could move to dodge was his neck. With his head tilted at a nearly ninety degree angle and eyes wide with shock, Hoji looked rather daunting to the intimidated and exhausted Sasori. Hoji started marching forward with his head stuck on his shoulder.

* * *

"My, my. Looks like Sasori's getting serious." Kagoya observed, having heard the blast just moments ago. Shin was starting to get serious with Kagoya, and a break from the action was a necessity that neither fighter wanted to be without. They faced each other and planned out their next move carefully. Shin's eyes were violently shaking, as if he was sleeping with them open, while Kagoya was focusing on one point past his opponent. Both fighters knew how to read an opponent through their eyes, and neither was taking the risk of being found out.

Shin snapped forward and cut across Kagoya's mid-section. Kagoya was able to block it by a hairs breadth, and jumped back to avoid Shin's second attack. With his arm revved fully back, Shin ran forward and prepared to swing, but Kagoya was quicker and delivered a thrust to Shin's head. Shin rolled out of the way to Kagoya's side and counter-thrusted, which Kagoya jumped over and landed several feet back. This fight was beginning to drain them both. Kagoya was panting while keeping his stance steady, and Shin was slouched over sweating.

Both charged at once. Shin was closer to the ground from slouching, so he started a slash that would rise up from the ground to break Kagoya's guard. It worked, and Shin delivered a powerful kick to Kagoya's stomach, which sent him flying back onto a porch. The wood splintered as he landed and he groaned as he got up.

"Looks like I should be getting serious too." Kagoya said with a smile as he wiped the spit off his mouth. Shin wobbled for a moment then pointed his sword at Kagoya.

"Yeah. You probably should." Kagoya snickered slightly at Shin's little remark, then stood back up. He held his sword in both hands with palms flat and open gripping the hilt on either side with the blade facing outward. Shin sense that something was coming, something he had felt before. The overwhelming discharge that the previous shinigami exuded when they released their sword's true forms. The intertwining mesh of two different spiritual fields at once.

"Sing to the heavens and the earth…**Tenshiguro**"

The blade of the sword morphed and twisted into a new shape resembling a tree's branches. When the light around the sword died out, the form was visible. The entire blade had become white, and each blade branched out from a central rod coming from the hilt. Shin smiled widely and gripped his sword firmly with both hands. From Kagoya's standing, he could only see Shin's wild smile under his darkened brow.

"Something amusing about my shikai?" Shin tried to stuffle back a laugh, but ended up snorting in amusement. Kagoya looked warily at his unmoving, confusing opponent's face.

"So, you know your sword's name too? This will be interesting!" Kagoya straightened his face and pointed his sword forward. The branches whipped out and lashed furiously in all directions, tearing up the ground and nearby walls. He twirled the hilt of the weapon like a drill, and the branches wrapped around the middle rod at various angles. Kagoya took another step forward, drawing back his arm without moving the sword. He grunted and gave a powerful thrust forward, with each branch flying forth like lightning at a very eager and excited Shin.

* * *

Sasori was at the end of his rope. After running into the woods and circling back into the village, he was ready to collapse and await his dealer of death. Hoji got a second wind from dodging the Hiyari-Hou (Fire Lance Cannon) and was relentlessly chasing him down, trying to grab him and cut him to pieces. Sasori gripped his hilt, shaking his whole sword and making it clack to break the silence of his hiding. Hoji stomped the ground just a short distance from Sasori.

"Come on out, kid! I promise to fight you seriously now!" Hoji shouted all around him. He satred to walk away when he heard the rattling of metal from behind him. He walked over briskly and pulled away a piece of wood that was covering a small alley behind a house. Sasori watched him from his own spot one house over and decided to make a break for it.

_Kagoya can help me! He must be finished with that other guy if he's used shikai already! He can protect me until I can fire the Hiyari-Hou again!_

Hoji heard the running of footsteps fade away in the distance. He presumed that the younger sibling was running to the older one for protection, and started to move his own way in the direction of erupting power and energy. Wherever Hoji could see the destruction is where he would find his master.

* * *

"_So, why are you teaching me all this crap about proper fighting and whatnot?" Hoji asked Shin with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Shin held his own sword up to his eyes and examined it closely before answering Hoji._

"_Ours is a mutual method of teaching. I shall teach you about combat," he pointed the deathly-looking blade down to Hoji's nose, "and you will help me learn about my sword."_

* * *

This memory still puzzled Hoji, as he didn't know anything about his own sword's name. However, if Shin knew something then he was confident in it. A powerful warrior like him wouldn't hand out his trust to any man, and Hoji felt honored that he was selected to train with him. The air around him just resonated with a passion unlike anything that he had felt from any other shinigami.

_He really is a piece of work._

Hoji watched from the rooftop as Shin was ecstatically deflecting every attack Kagoya's weapon made.


	7. Flash

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin made a sharp spin around as he swung his sword with the collective motion of his whole body. When the metal touched the branches of Kagoya's weapon, they all flew back in the same direction, towards Kagoya. The unfortunate swordsman jumped out of the way, making room for the many steel-strength tentacles to blow a hole in the house behind him. Looking at the damage with mild disdain, he repositioned himself in the air and readied himself to black as Shin came charging quickly across the road.

With only one hand Shin delivered a powerful downstroke that Kagoya managed to block just in time. A small crater was created from the impact under Kagoya, adding to the field's rapidly progressing image of a war-torn battlefield. Kagoya twirled his sword with his wrist, compacting all the wiry rods into one bumpy looking club. He grasped the hilt of his newly formed instrument with both hands and jumped forward. Shin stood with a menacing grin on his face.

Shin sidestepped Kagoya's attack and appeared behind him, dragging his sword through the air on his shoulder. It was faster than a flash, but somewhere Shin managed to cut Kagoya's arms up to the elbow, leaving a multitude of flesh wounds that spurted out drops of blood all at once. The shock of instant pain made Kagoya drop his heavy weapon, but he recovered fast enough to swing it back, only to have Shin deflect it as he was making another approach. Both leaped back from each other panting.

Shin stood with an evil grin on his face and wide-eyed with bloodlust, Kagoya with one eye closed to compensate for the pain in his arms. Disregarding the pain for a moment he tightened the grip on his weapon and took a shuffling step back.

"_I need to think. He's been blocking every strike that Tenshiguro makes. I can't surprise him. And his speed, that weird invisible attack of his, I can't anticipate that. He's a bit to much for just my sword." _He held a hand half-clenched up to his face and opened his closed eye. "I'll have to try a different tactic."

He pointed his arm and hand at Shin, who was just standing un-amused and waiting for movement. Kagoya was certain of his tactic and didn't anticipate any unnecessary action from Shin at this point.

"_Bakudo, Sai!"_ There was a brief flash of light, and suddenly Shin couldn't move his arms. They folded neatly behind his back and his hands opened to grab both his arms. His sword dropped straight into the ground. Shin's face gave a small smirk.

"What a neat trick," he said to Kagoya with a certain amount of animosity in his voice. Without any forethought or hesitation, Shin started sprinting toward and unmoving Kagoya. Kagoya flexed his hand, making a motion to clench something, and Shin fell over. Now his legs were pressed hard together and wouldn't move. Still not giving in to the obvious hopelessness of his situation, Shin started squirming his way over like a caterpillar.

Kagoya smirked casually and lifted up his weapon then crashed it down to the ground. Shin was able to roll out of the way in time, but fell into a ditch and couldn't move anymore. There was a very feint-cheering coming from the town. No one was particularly happy with the several houses that had been decimated by the fight, but at least now it was over. Shin Kenpachi was already half dead as Kagoya strode over with a dense air of triumph.

* * *

Sasori was watching in the distance under a bush. He was still eluding his monstrous pursuer and didn't want to take chances before Kagoya could help him. He was initially worried about his brother's abilities against the so-called 'deadly' rogue, but now that he had broken out the Bakudo and paralyzed him completely, it was only a short matter of time. As Sasori watched he heard something troubling behind him.

Hoji was standing in the street with his sword slung on his shoulder and his palm pointed at Kagoya a fair distance away. Energy was massing into his hand with a foreboding deep red color. Sasori watched warily as the terrifying nearly bald man created a rippling ball of pure spiritual energy. What was more startling to Sasori was not only did he look perfectly calm and collected, Kagoya didn't notice what was about to happen.

"_Senkou no…"_ Hoji ruggedly said as the ball of energy stabilized. He tensed his fingers around the orb and beams of blood-red light shined outwards in every direction. Kagoya's attention was now diverted from delivering a final blow to the aggravated Shin below him to coming to terms with something his mind couldn't grasp.

"_**SHIKYO!"**_ The beam was gone almost instantly, leaving behind it a roar of terrible thunder and a glimmering trail of spiritual dust in the air. Kagoya received the blast as a whole, visible from the gaping hole where his shoulder used to be. Hoji smiled a wide and evil smile as Kagoya fell to his knees screaming to the heavens.

* * *

Shin could feel his fingers and toes moving once again, so he sprung up out of the ditch and jumped over the various craters away from his now shrieking opponent to his sword. Sasori had broken his cover out of desperation and ran at full speed over to the profusely bleeding Kagoya. Shin pulled his sword up and sheathed it. No matter how he wanted to look at this, the fight was over.

Hoji arrived at the scene with his sword already stowed away, looking down at the sight of the pitiless man. Kagoya had stopped screaming in favor of gasping and breathing heavily, clenching at his wound and trying to keep his arm from falling off. Sasori was just staring at him, breathless, with tears in his eyes. The man he had always looked up to for his strength and cunning, his mentor, his big brother, was sobbing like a child in a deepening pool of blood.

"He'll live, right?" Hoji said from behind Sasori. Sasori was completely paralyzed with terror and surprise, but his head bobbed unconsciously to answer the lividly horrific man's question.

"Good! I wanna fight this guy next time! He looked like fun!" Hoji turned to where most of the villagers were hiding. "HEY! GET OVER HERE AND TREAT HIS WOUNDS, DAMMIT!" Several terrified villagers came out with bandages and salves, several others came out and gathered around the unfortunate man. They flipped him on his back and started emitting a green light from their hands while the others wrapped the hole as it slowly closed shut. Sasori was the only one present to watch the two gruesome fighters leave down the road they were traveling along.

* * *

"Why couldn't we interrogate him or something? He knew his sword's name, and he could have taught us how to communicate with our swords!" Hoji complained to Shin as they were walking down yet another dark and dusty road.

"Because," Shin replied staring at the moon, "that would defeat the purpose of our training." Hoji blinked and hit his head with an open palm. He had forgotten about the journey they were on and was only concentrating on the results of it. "By the way, you're gonna have to teach me how you did that thing that nearly killed him. What was it called?"

Hoji stared at Shin, remarking about the paradox of a teacher asking for enlightenment from a student. But until one of them knew their sword's name, they were both students of something.

"Sure thing, sensei."

* * *

Hiyari-Hou Fire: Spear Cannon  
Senkou no Shikyo: Flash of Death

This was all before the academy, so the hakudo and bakudo don't need numbers or verses per say. The traditional bakudo spells that already exist will be named and numbered.


	8. Dreaming

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

An aged couple waited in their finely furnished sitting room for their applicant to arrive. He was already a half-hour late to their meeting. The couple in question was part of a highly respected nobility that made a name in the fencing world and the safe transportation of cargo, so they were essentially a bodyguard and escort family. Recently, a man named Shin Kenpachi, who had been roaming the countryside with an unquenchable bloodlust, attacked one of their distinguished members at a checkpoint.

"He is late," said the old woman. Her husband nodded. The company they had contacted assured them of their agent's credibility for being on time no matter what. This tardiness was not a good display upon which this company trusted their most skilled and experienced agent with.

"Hello." A voice called out from behind the couple. They both turned to meet the eyes of their hired hitman. Suichi, a renowned name in the assassination business of its time, walked in from behind the couple and sat across their table from them. The woman glared at him with contempt and finally snarled out a complaint.

"Do you now how long we've been waiting on you, young man?" The assassin looked apathetically and responded in a flat voice

"Yes. I've been here since this morning." The couple stared at him in shock. Suichi scratched at an itch on his ear, then returned to slouching in his seat. His hair was messy and black, his eyes were half-closed and his sword was holstered around his lower back horizontally. His pants were a standard shinigami-style of pants, but he wore no sandals or shoes, just socks. On his torso was a black tank top skin suit that was held tight by his belt around his body.

"Were you stalking us this whole time, just to taunt us?" The elderly man inquired, still slightly shocked.

"No," Suichi answered, "I just didn't want to be late so I came here and waited for you to start waiting on me. I just lost track of time, is all." The couple's stare was broken as the lady reached behind her and pulled out a wooden square. In this square was the picture of the target as seen by a specially designed technique for bounty hunters and shinigami to recognize a target. She placed the square on the table and pushed it to Suichi, who grabbed it lazily and held it to his face.

"That is the man we want you to kill, and we can pay you exuberantly if you are successful." Suichi threw the picture back down on the table and stood up.

"Sorry," he began, "but I can't target this man." The couple fumed at him silently, glaring straight into his apathetic face. "My company doesn't want anybody to pursue this guy. That and I'm not in this business for the money, just to deal some punishment to the wicked people in the world. Sorry again, see ya." With that stunning remark, he walked out the door and left the estate without a trace. No guards even noticed a man entering the premises when the couple interrogated them all.

_Man, that guy's trouble,_ Suichi thought as he walked down a busy street. _I should tell the boss about this. It must be the eighteenth hit we've gotten for him this month._Shin sat next to the campfire, deeply enjoying the first feeling of warmth he had felt in far too long. The walking and training seemed to never end. Everyday he and Hoji trained their skills, meditating and sparing, discovering new techniques that could be launched at the flick of a wrist. All the while, time was taken by both to try and communicate with their swords.

* * *

Combat wasn't lax either, as various bounty hunters or self-righteous shinigami or even just some daredevil punks were waiting at every village in and out of Shin's path. So far, any progress to achieve the so-called 'Shikai' has been unsuccessful between the both of the fighters. Shin was still at a total loss as to how to adequately listen to his sword, whereas Hoji was just randomly calling out any name that he could think of in an attempt to provoke his sword.

Both of them, recently, had reached a mutual revelation that a summoning of some kind had to be called out before the name of the sword to access its full power. That was as far as either of them got to a credible discovery, and neither could hear a thing when they tried to speak with their swords. While it was just continuous training for Shin, it was maddening to Hoji, who spent most of his free time shooting holes in trees with his new techniques.

"RRRAAARGH!!" Hoji screamed. Shin perked his eyes up to see that Hoji was mindlessly punching and kicking dents in a tree. "I can't get it to work at all! Damn it all!" Shin usually didn't add to Hoji's rants, but this one peaked his curiosity.

"What can't you get to work?" Shin inquired. Hoji stumbled with his arms in the air, unaware that Shin was still awake, let alone listening to him. He turned wide-eyed to affirm that Shin was staring him down accusingly. Hoji jumped back and straightened himself out.

"My sword," he began explaining in a defeated tone, "I've been trying to jumpstart the shikai by pouring my spiritual energy into my sword, but that doesn't work. I can't hear anything when I meditate either, just white noise and wind sometimes." He stopped and looked at Shin expectantly.

"Yeah," Shin said, "I usually hear the same thing. That in mind," he pulled his sword up to his face, eyeing the hilt's black wrapping soulfully, "maybe we should concentrate on the common aspects of our meditating and see where that takes us. The wind, most preferably." Hoji nodded and yawned. It was late and sleep was a rare commodity they had both gone without for quite a while.

"Enough training for today, I suppose," a weary Shin said as he lay down with his sword on his chest. "Time to sleep once again." Hoji followed with an affirmative yawning grunt and nearly fell over to the ground. The night pressed on with silence as the two monsters slept and dreamed unaware of just what the morning would bring to them.

* * *

_You again!_

…_yes…_

_Where are you?_

…_where I've always been…_

_Who are you?_

…_you…_

_You? Me? What does that mean?_

…_you're close…but…he is…_

_What?_

…

_Are you still there?_

…_**Shikei**__…_

_What? What's that? Wait, are you my--_

…_no…he is…_

_WHO?_

…_The greatest fighter…shikei…spread the word…_

Hoji awoke from his cryptic darkness with a start. His head jumped up ahead of his body and he pulled a muscle in his neck. He looked over to the peacefully sleeping man across from the dying fire, the greatest fighter he knew of, and wondered aloud.

"Shikei…" He stared at the sky for only a moment longer, then drifted back off to sleep in hopes of dreaming once again.


	9. Monsters

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

For a month or two, Shin Kenpachi and his disciple, Hoji Airaijin, had been walking without pause. They gathered food when they passed through a village or checkpoint and always defeated any enemy that came in their way. Their path was erratic and dynamic, never what it seemed, but a common destination was decided by the Shinigami guards of the neighboring cities that they were headed further and further into the frontier. Why, no one had a clue, but at least they weren't destined for any major cities anytime soon.

"Oi, captain." Hoji cried out annoyingly. Shin despised being referred to as 'captain', a submissive position for fat-cats to abuse at their ever present leisure. He would have much preferred to be called 'grunt' over 'captain'.

"What?" Shin replied with irritation.

"Where are we going?" Hoji asked this because Shin always had a definite plan as to where they were going, but never told him until they were either almost there or if he asked.

"Who knows, just don't fall behind." Shin answered bluntly. Hoji shrugged, obviously satisfied with that answer, and looked to the sky.

"It's getting' dark. Should we set up camp?" Shin took a glance skyward and kicked the dust under him.

"Yeah, I guess so." The both veered off the road and behind a rock where no one would see them at a glance. For a long time now, camping implied that the two would pick out a spot on the road and fall on their faces for the night, having lost or otherwise destroyed all their camping equipment at some point.

Hoji was contemplating telling Shin about his dream a few nights ago, where a voice was speaking to him. The subject was touchy, however, because Shin seemed to be getting closer to his sword on his own and Hoji didn't want to interrupt his delicate training.

_Shortcuts aren't always the best path. Better to let him find out on his own, if that dream was accurate, of course._ Hoji heard Shin stirring in his sleep. Shin never slept peacefully, there was always a night when Hoji was awoken by a foot to the face or a punch to the gut from an unconscious Shin.

Hoji decided to play it safe and sleep on the other side of the rock. At least if he was seen by a passer he could take them on. As he crawled around to the other side he saw a strange object across the dark road writhing around. It was about the size of a bear, but had an oddly humanoid outline.

Hoji took a wary step toward the road, keeping his hands ready to draw his sword. As he got closer he could see more of the creature. It had sleek, almost shiny green skin and a white face which was buried in something on the ground. Hoji could now hear the muffled crunching and snapping of bones as he could see a deer being devoured by this new beast.

The creature slowly raised its head out of the carcass and stared at Hoji with shining yellow eyes. The white face was splattered with the red blood of the unfortunate deer, with a row of exposed fangs running the length of its face. Hoji got into stance, with one hand on the hilt and the other aimed at the creature.

"Ah," said a raspy voice in the creature's direction, "a fresh soul. This is a fortunate night indeed." Hoji was frozen as he saw this monster's mouth moving with the words. His mind quickly pieced the puzzle together and gathered that this creature was indeed talking to him, and it sounded hungry.

* * *

Shin was woken by the sound of lightning very close by. This was not ordinary lightning, however, but the sound of Hoji's favorite destructive spell. He turned to notice that Hoji was indeed gone from where he was sleeping, and he shot up to his feet with sheathe clenched in hand.

He jumped on top of the rock to look around for his disciple. Across the road he could make out the energy trail of the _Senkou no Shikyo_ emanating from a panting, bleeding Hoji. The attack was aimed, apparently, at a group of lizard-fish creatures with white faces. The attack only hit one of them, which staggered slightly before advancing.

Hoji turned to see his sensei perched atop the rock and jumped in a flash to join him. He grasped his arm, still breathing heavily, and sheathed his sword beside Shin.

"Sorry, cap'n, but I can't handle 'em. You'll have to finish up here." Shin looked down with surprise at this disciple. Up until now he would face armies of enemies with out a second thought and win, always laughing at his injuries afterwards. Shin glared anxiously at his enemies across the road and prepared to take over.

"No prob," Shin said as he raised his unsheathed sword and pointed it at one of the creatures coming his way, "and don't call me captain." With that, in a bold and rather vindictive move, Shin kicked Hoji off the rock. Hoji tumbled down and fell falt on his chest with legs in the sir over his head on the ground. Too weak to retaliate, or move at the moment, Hoji just laid flat.

**"_Totsunyuu,"_** Shin's practiced magic was more concentrated on his own already arcane strength and speed. Most of the attacks he created were nothing more than charged slashed or kicks, sometimes rapid movement to create after-images to confuse his opponents. This technique was his most powerful at the moment.

"_**Usaikaku!**__"_ It was over for that one demon. Shin was now behind it and next to the other two, sheathing his sword slowly. The attack propelled him forward at impossible speeds and plunged his sword deep into the enemy's skull. It was instant death, but Shin decided that wasn't enough and followed it with a powerful down stroke along the beast's face.

As the other creatures watched on in horror as their former comrade dissolved into dark nothingness, they turned slowly to the grinning demon who killed him, leaning towards them with his hand still on the hilt of his sheathed sword.

"That was easy enough," Shin said with a maniacal grin, "Who's next?" He turned and got into stance to face the creatures, who both growled at him with intense animosity.

"You shall pay for that, shinigami! We will devour you whole!" Both creatures rushed at Shin simultaneously while Hoji stared on in amazement at his master. So calm and confident, so powerful. It would be a travesty for the world if his sword ever got any _more_ powerful. Hoji smirked as the thoughts of what form their swords could possibly take rushed through his mind.

"I can't wait." Hoji said, watching Shin from the distance chopping apart the monsters with style and grace.

* * *

Totsunyuu Usaikaku: Rushing Black Rhino Horn


	10. Hollow Moon

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"ATTACK THE SHINIGAMI!!" Ten monsters had appeared out of the thicket and started charging at the sight of some maniac slowly decimating one of their own. Shin looked up at the rushing group of wolf-like lizard monsters with an apathetic gaze.

"Come on. Is that your only tactic?" Hoji was watching from his rock perch. Where he had failed, Shin excelled infinitely. The developing scene was an endless entertainment to Hoji, but something was off about the majesty he was watching. Shin was bored, even lethargic looking, as he wildly hacked the monsters to clean pieces.

In truth, Shin was fully immersed in his current work of dicing the never-ending legion of creatures. The tediousness of the fight, however, did bore him greatly as his face unconsciously showed. The monsters were starting to get the idea that this particular shinigami was far too much as they retreated into the thicket and back through an imperceptible darkness from which they had come. Shin carved the last one's skeleton face in half and stood silently admiring his non-existent work. The bodies had all dissolved away into a black mist, but evidence of the struggle remained in the overturned and scratched earth around him.

"That was" Shin hissed as he sheathed his sword, "disappointing." His sword clanged shut in its sheathe and several small twisters of dust shot up. Shin started to pace his way back to Hoji, who was still perched upon his rock and smiling. Shin shot a small smile back that he knew couldn't be seen through the veil of darkness. Hoji's smile was wiped slowly off his face by an unknown hand as he stared up in horror at something in the sky. Shin stopped as he felt a heavy presence forming up form behind him.

He turned to meet the waving black of a giant's robe. This monster stood at least twenty feet tall in a liquid-like black robe with a row of spikes protruding out above a gaping hole in its form. The beast's face had a long nose and a completely black expression, devoid of thought or order. Shin's mouth was agape, and Hoji was dryly screaming on his rock. This creature wouldn't go down with a single swing, no matter how powerful it was. In this light, Hoji miraculously focused himself and threw up his hand.

"_Senkou no Shikyo!_" The familiar glaring flash of light screeched through the air and into the monster's face. To Shin and Hoji's dismay, it slammed into its face and knocked it backwards, but didn't pierce straight through. The '_Senkou no Shikyo_' always beamed straight through anything it was aimed at. This creature was only slightly fazed. With its body in an almost ninety-degree lean back, the creature opened its horrid mouth and roared so loudly that the clouds seemed to be retreating. Hoji recoiled only slightly, but still managed to tumble backwards off his rock. Shin stared coldly, unmoving and unwavering. His hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

* * *

Suichi was given a startling set of orders to fulfill regarding Shin Kenpachi. His master had just finished lecturing him and handing him several scrolls with seals, and Suichi was off and rushing through the night. From the secret assassin's base in the highlands to the west of the Seireitei, Suichi went to the northeast to intercept his first target.

_The old man must be senile,_ he thought as he raced onward, _sending me to kill my previous client. I don't know how this is supposed to attract that Kenpachi guy, but whatever._ He took a glance down at the bundle of scrolls he was toting along. _I wonder what's in these things. Maybe instructions for me after I kill this guy…Yeah. That's probably it._

Suichi heard a scream coming from a small hamlet in the woods. His overwhelming sense of justice temporarily took control of his assassin body and he altered his course to search for the scream. He hopped and skipped over and across the rooftops until he could see the sight plainly. A horrible, bear-sized monster with green skin and a skeletal face was stalking towards a quivering young woman. Suichi unsheathed the sword from his waist and jumped down.

The beast roared with a hollow voice as Suichi sheathed his sword again. A gashing strike down the middle of its face sent green ooze spilling to the ground. The monster started to dissolve into black nothing as Suichi made a fearsome approach to the still cowering woman. He extended his hand and tried his hardest not to sound evil.

"Are you hurt?" he asked. The woman didn't move for a moment, then gulped and shook her head as she placed her hand daintily in his. He pulled her up to her feet swiftly and nodded with a smile. Then he was gone. The woman was sure that someone had just been there and wanted to thank them more appropriately, but now they had vanished. Suichi watched her run back through the empty streets to her home from a rooftop. After she closed the door, he continued on his path to assassinate hi former client.

_Those damn monsters won't stop showing up, it seems. I doubt they're much of a problem for this 'Kenpachi' guy, though._

* * *

Shin was openly grinning. This new monster's power was exponentially greater than the other grunts that had come before it. This monster could fire a highly destructive beam from its mouth which was tearing up the surrounding landscape. Smoking craters and long burnt paths could be seen from the nearby hills, which is where Hoji had retreated too. Desperate to help, he relied on Shin distracting the beast while he fire off his '_Senkou no Shikyo'_ when it was visibly hurt. So far, he nearly hit Shin three times and was wary to try again.

"HAHA! This is Fantastic!" Shin exclaimed as he jumped up to carve yet another scar in the beast's face. With a roar his sword shot downward and traveled the expanse of the monster's body to the ground. The force of the impact after traveling through the beast was still enough to make an explosion upon contact with the ground. Shin looked up to watch as the best writhed and reeled its body in pain. Shin retreated a short distance and readied an attack.

"_**BOKO no…"**_ He drew his sword above his head and pointed it at the sky, grasping the hilt tightly with both hands. This attack, when it hit, was monstrously powerful. The monster, in a desperate attempt at retribution against its enemy, lunged its whole body forward, following its open mouth. Shin sword shot to the ground in a swift and deadly motion.

"_**TSUKI!!"**_ The beast disintegrated in a flash of blinding white light. Shin's smile had widened across his face and his eyes were staring straight through the flash he created. He watched in exceeding joy as the monster he had been fighting so vigorously against was now dissolving into dust. Hoji was knocked backwards and sent rolling halfway down the hill. His wounds found a new meaning of pain as he started counting the small rocks and gravel pieces that were lodged in his still bleeding sores.

"Man, Shin," Hoji complained to the wind as the thunderous roar of Shin's attack finally died down, "You're just too much." Feeling satisfied that his wounds were now dirt-free, Hoji climbed back up to the top of the hill. Shin was standing, unmoving, in front of an open and smoking crater where the monster had just been. It wasn't there or anywhere anymore. Even the ground seemed to disappear with it. Hoji watched as the effects of the powerful attack took effect and Shin collapsed backwards.

"Tch. It would've been funnier if he fell _into_ the crater…Ah well." Hoji had only seen the technique used in a much less powerful manner before, during their training. This was concrete proof to him that the name does indeed make a difference in power, regardless as to how well you know the attack. Hoji slid down the hill and recovered Shin's still unmoving yet still alive body and started walking. The sun was already rising over the battle-scarred landscape.

"So much for a peaceful night of camping." Hoji complained. He pulled at Shin's body, slung over his shoulder like a sack of stolen goods, and started walking and humming. Hopefully Shin wouldn't wake up for a while and Hoji could finally get some rest.

* * *

Boko no Tsuki: Hollow Moon


	11. Morning Comes

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Suichi, after finishing the assignment and widowing yet another poor woman of high esteem, started back to the headquarters. He chose to go through the woods instead of over the town as a shortcut. The sun was already pouring light through the trees and brightening the streams that streaked across the ground. Suichi was proceeding back to the higher ups, having planted the note at the scene as he had been instructed, to have him mission changed. The depth of the pool in which he currently stood would no doubt serve to drown him soon enough.

* * *

Hoji, after carrying Shin for an unknown amount of time during the twilight, was finally fed up. Not to long after his weighted sprint had started, Shin started snoring as he often does, and loudly at that. Hoji could only stand the deafening roar for so long before he started contemplating tossing Shin around until he stopped making noise. This plan failed, however, once Hoji realized how tired he was himself and barely had the energy to continue let alone thrash his "captain" into a pulp.

After a calming and quiet rant to himself, Hoji stumbled upon an oasis in the steadily vanishing forest. Soon enough he dropped Shin on the ground and started his own training under a small waterfall. Hoji was deep within he thoughts, searching himself for any arcane knowledge that might steer him towards his sword's true form. While this practice did wonders for his concentration and spiritual control, it never seemed to lead him the right way.

Shin was still snoring, loudly, which tended to keep the more dangerous animals away at night. During the day it was a nuisance that could rarely be dealt with. Regardless as to the state of his brain, his hand was still firmly gripped around his sword handle. The peaceful scene of the clearing was something that the animals of the forest wouldn't even fare to break, which usually forced them downstream for a drink if they needed one.

_Man that guy's a nuisance_ Hoji thought to himself around mid-day. He held his sword out to eye level and began silently scanning its shimmering surface. From the tip down to the wide zig-zag guard and the royal colors around the grip. _Although you're not much better…_ The brush at the edge of the clearing began to rustle. Regardless of the noise of rushing water on top of him, Hoji could sense that someone was nearby and ready to attack.

A pair of children, one boy and one girl stumbled stupidly into the open clearing and walked towards the loudly sleeping man. They thought that he was a monster from a distance and were both ready to fight it off. The boy was visibly disappointed that it was in fact a sleeping man, and the girl was shaking with fear.

"M-maybe this isn't a good idea, Sensuke. W-we should just go…" whimpered the girl. The undaunted boy turned to her with his hands at his hips and donned a powerfully enthusiastic grin.

"Don't be a baby, Aya! This guy's asleep, he can't hurt us." The timid girl emerged from the brush clutching a stick for protection.

Hoji observed silent as the wind itself from the high branch of a tree on the far side of the clearing. The children were obviously not there to cause any trouble for either of them, just exploring like children do. Hoji almost laughed to himself for getting worked up, but then he watched the young boy poke Shin with a stick. He shot his hand up to his mouth so he didn't scream with fear.

_Oh, crap! If that kid stirs Shin to much…_ Incredibly unpleasant images depicting Shin as a bear and the children as goats flashed briefly through his mind before he decided on a brash and stupid action.

"CUT IT OUT, KID!!" Hoji took a dive from the tree branch just in time to intercept the high-power backhand from a now waking Shin. As Hoji was slammed into the solid dirt, Shin rose himself up slightly and glanced over at the dead startled young boy and quivering girl. Feeling the twitch of anger under his arm, Shin refocused on Hoji as he sat up on the ground.

"Hoji, what's going on?" Shin asked his compatriot in an honestly curious tone. Hoji seethed to himself while unearthing his angry face.

"Who are these two?" Shin asked pointing at the unconscious boy and nearly dead-frightened girl. The girl took a wary step forward and began in a nearly silent whimper

"I…I'm Aya Kusagiri and this is…this is Sensuke Mokojiro. Please don't eat us…or…anything…" her mumbling died down to a point that neither shinigami could hear. Shin stood up and walked over to the girl, placing his hand on her head. She turned upwards with a terrified gaze to Shin's apathetic face.

"Don't worry," he said, patting her shock-still head, "we won't kill you. Right Hoji?" He turned to the grumbling man who was dusting the dirt off of his nearly bald head. He gave a half-hearted nod and the girl's body stopped trembling. The boy, however, woke up to a terrible fright.

"AAHHHH!! IT'S THE DEVIL KING!!" He fainted again. Hoji chuckled lightly and Shin just stood with a stone face.

_He must have been having some weird dream…_ Shin thought as the boy continued to writhe around like a snake.

* * *

"Ah, so that is the situation." Said an old and jaded man. Suichi knelt before his master and guardian with the plea of dismissal from his current mission. The details for his further progress were written inside one of the scrolls that he was instructed to read and leave behind. These instructions were far to dangerous for him to carry out alone.

"At the very least," Suichi started with his eyes locked on the floor, "I will require accompaniment to carry this mission out fully. Otherwise I am declining it." The old man stroked at his frazzled beard in deep thought. In a guild of assassins with such high renown in the underground, sending more than one assassin to accomplish any mission would be disgraceful.

"I know what must be done" the old man said as he pulled out a black scroll and inked brush. Suichi glanced up hopefully. Perhaps his appeal had reached good ears, perhaps his mission would be picked up by someone with more skill. His hope was struck down with a spiteful hand as the old man turned his finished scroll to Suichi.

'NO WAY' it read. Suichi stared with mouth agape as the now laughing old man as he sat back down and pulled out a pipe.

"Of course," the old man started, "I'm only joking now." Suichi fell on his face.

"Be SERIOUS, sir! This mission is impossible! You've heard the reports, haven't you?" Suichi, disregarding his former honorable position, shot up to his feet. "You know there's a reason it's called 'Blood Meadows'…No shinigami has ever returned from there." The old man took a long drag from his pipe and gazed directly at Suichi.

"That's the beauty of it" he bluntly said. "All you have to do is lead this man into the land and nature will do our job for us." Suichi slumped his shoulders at the old man's logic. He sat down in a huff and rested his chin angrily on his fist. The plan made sense enough, but luring a man as dangerous and unpredictable as his target wasn't going to be easy. Even if the trail did work there still wasn't a guarantee that his prey would be exposed.

_Man this sucks. Why can't I just kill him in his sleep with poison or something…I hate this war sometimes._


	12. Pressure

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"And that's our story," Aya finished, bowing rapidly at Hoji. "Please forgive us for our intrusion." Hoji wasn't paying much attention after she finished her tale, as he was still training with Shin, doing push-ups with his thumbs and keeping his body vertical in the air.

"So what if you two are engaged or whatever, doesn't mean you can run away…" Hoji mused to the girl. The young boy was still having nightmares under Hoji's coat which he gave up out of pity. Hoji lowered his face to the ground one last time and pushed himself high into the air. Then, he floated slowly back down.

"Tch. Well," Hoji started, "I guess I'm not one to ridicule someone else's life. But you kids should get going," Hoji started walking away from the child still seated and watching warily, "we've got work to do."

Aya glanced over at her would-be fiancée and frowned pathetically. Who was she to go against her parent's wishes so callously? Even if Sensuke took the blame for their wandering off, she would still get a verbal lashing from her parents.

_The future of our clan is riding solely on you marrying the Mokojiro boy! Don't you dare disobey us, and don't even think about letting down the clan! Do you understand, Aya?_

Her father's voice echoed hollowly in her mind. She could remember her seated in the middle of the family's sitting room, being appraised like a piece of furniture with the eyes of all her relatives locked on her. She didn't move, she barely breathed. And she could remember how angry Sensuke looked, angry and scared as well.

Sensuke groaned and sat up slowly, rubbing his head. Now that he had fainted twice in the same setting from isolated events, he was ready to bravely stand up and defend himself.

"One! Two!" Sensuke awoke to the loud grunts and rhythmic shouting of Shin and Hoji training by swinging huge logs over their heads repeatedly. Sensuke felt another faint coming one, but recollected himself and crawled over to Aya, who was watching the impressive display of power from a distance.

"Psst! Aya!" Sensuke whispered from the brush behind her. "Come on! Let's go before people come looking for us!" Aya nodded and started walking over to the forest thicket. She considered bidding the shinigami farewell, but decided against it from the looks on their faces. The heated passion that twisted with aggressive happiness with each stroke they took, she didn't want to interrupt that.

Suddenly the brush rustled lightly, and two guards dressed in red and golden robes came bursting through the woods. Inadvertently, one had stepped on Sensuke, knocking him out yet again.

"Lady Aya, are you alright! One weasely looking soldier shouted. Aya in turn tugged on his robes from the ground and looked apologetically at him. The soldier nearly burst into tears as he dropped his sword and scooped the child up in his arms.

"Ah! The Lady Aya is safe! Our clan is secure!" He let out an airy laugh of triumph as his partner stood in total shock at the two other people standing in the grove's clearing. Their faces were burnt into his mind, the two murderers that had been roaming the country side and destroying entire villages. Shin Kenpachi and his cohort of unimportant detail.

The other guard stopped his happy dance and nearly threw the girl he was celebrating into the brush behind him. She landed on top of Sensuke just as he was standing up.

"Stand back, Lady Aya! These two are beastly criminals of the highest degree!" Shin and Hoji turned away from their training and walked slowly over to face down the two guards.

"Shin Kenpachi, you are under arrest for resisting arrest for murder and rampageous behavior across the country!" the weasel-man said with his sword staring the pair down. Shin and Hoji just stared at him, Hoji adding a little more rampant anger to his own stare.

"This doesn't seem to be a very fair fight, don't you think?" Shin asked dryly. The guard glanced over curiously at his partner, who was now collapsed on the ground and foaming at the mouth. He turned back to face the duo, then blinked and shot is head over again and screamed.

"What did you do to him?" Suddenly, there was a massive build up of pressure all around the unfortunate guard. Shin and Hoji glared at him through seemingly white eyes as the guard's vision faded from a blur into darkness. Both guards were incapacitated by the presence of Shin and Hoji, and the two laughed slightly.

Aya and Sensuke had observed from the bush they were hiding in at the spectacle. Sensuke had been secretly hoping for an all out fight, but even from acknowledging the massive presence that Shin and Hoji had, a fight would have been far to destructive for either he nor Aya to handle. Aya was just staring with wide and shimmering eyes.

"You two!" Shin suddenly shouted and pointed at the wrong bush. "Get yourselves back to your homes! It won't be long before more of these bastards start arriving." Aya nodded silently and picked up Sensuke. Shin noticed the direction they were heading and corrected his finger to make him look less like an idiot. It was too late, however, and Aya could hear Hoji's smart remarks fading as she raced through the woods.

* * *

"So, you're the next target…" Suichi dropped from the rafters of the hall to confront the log-haired man walking away. The man turned with an innocent smile and faced the assassin with a blood soaked sword pointed at him. Suichi reached to draw his own sword, but his hand stopped in mid-movement.

The air suddenly became surprisingly heavy. This was a common technique of the shinigami guards and royal soldiers, to manipulate their spiritual energy into a pressure that pushes around on everything around them. The smiling man with a charismatic and smug smile started walking towards Suichi, just as he adjusted himself to the pressure and drew out his sword.

"I know what you've done, Netami. The guild will have its vengeance," Suichi hissed as he grabbed his sword with both hands and pointed it sideways, "and I will deliver it!" Netami, smiled and glared through his parted bangs at the assassin's to be attempt.

"Coil endlessly," Netami's smile went from innocent to manic and terrifying, "_**Haganerensa!**_" The sword, in a blur of light, extended and coiled around Suichi's arm up to his elbow. When the brightness faded, Netami was still bearing his teeth and glaring venomously at Suichi's new weapon: a chain wrapped tightly around his arm and ended in a spiked link that dropped slightly off his middle finger.

Suichi glared at the nearly laughing Netami, and threw his arm back, readying an attack. Netami raised the sword that was still dripping with the blood of the noble family he had just finished slaughtering before his assassin came, and the battle ensued.

* * *

Haganerensa Steel Chain


	13. Prodigy

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

They say that once every hundred years or so, a special child is born that is gifted with abilities most others can never come to equal. In this period of the Spirit World, there are many average shinigami that would otherwise be on that level of a prodigy in the distant future (present BLEACH). With this in mind, it can be quite hard to imagine what a prodigy child's power would be in this, the golden age of warfare.

Netami is one such child, having achieved his Bankai, or final sword form, at only 20 years old. Netami was praised universally. All the warring clans coveted him as soon as he sought the life of a mercenary. His power was and has always been unrivaled, until another young prodigy was born. Out of pure hatred and jealousy, as well as the premonition of this newborn succeeding him, Netami slew him as a baby, as well as the child's entire family lest another miracle be born into the world.

And so this is where our scene falls. The blood of the innocent and undefended stained on his sword, and the assassin Suichi staring him down opposite a hallway in the no-more family's estate. Suichi knew his chances of survival depended solely on his opponent, and how much he would be able to antagonize him into pursuing him. The plan was to kill this man without fighting him, for there was no hope for any man alive to fight this man.

"Shoot!" Suichi yelled as he shot his arm forward. The chain snapped off and followed a double the velocity his arm blurred forward with. Netami, in a blurred movement of his own, deflected the chain into the wall. The chain continued forward and flew over Netami. Suichi formed a fist and jerked his arm back. "Reload!"

Netami disappeared for a moment, and the chain returned in a metallic blur around Suichi's forearm. Netami reappeared a step back from where he had just been, dodging the chain's attack easily, so it seemed. Suichi kept a serious face, attempting to keep it clear of any emotions for fear of his opponent sensing a weakness. Unconsciously, Suichi took a short step forward.

"Oh?" Netami playfully said. "Feeling brave, are we?" Netami carved a short line in the wooden floor at his feet and smiled up at Suichi. "I won't move past this line, alright? That should give you more than enough chances to hit me." Netami ended his little ruling with a smile and stood perfectly still. Suichi raised his arm and curled his fingers slightly.

"That's fine with me." He balled up his hand into a fist and threw it back again. "Shoot!" The chain whiped back out, perfectly straight and heading for Netami's face. Yet again, it was deflected, and without the slightest movement from Netami but a smile. This time, however, the chain started to ripple and writhe. "Lash!" Suichi cried. Netami's smile faded fast as the sharp tip of the chain's started lashing violently towards him.

For a moment, Suichi had a slight advantage. His training had given rise to new techniques that he never thought he could do before. His only attack and reload method were now expanded to a much wider variety of offensive and defensive techniques that could be used when the moment called for them.

Netami was furiously swinging his sword with a reversed hold, pointing the blade down with his hand pointed normally, to deflect the lashing chain. His face was obscured by his black bangs, but Suichi knew that he had him at least momentarily outmaneuvered. The clashing of metal on metal grew louder and louder through the narrow hall, until finally it stopped. This was an unexpected moment for both combatants, as Suichi's chain was coiled tightly around Netami's sword.

There was a chill in the air. Everything became completely silent for a few moments. Time even seemed to slow down. It was like the moments before one watches their own death, slow and antagonizing to the watcher, and now all Suichi could do was watch on in horror as Netami's nefarious smile became more and more clear by his glowing, murderous eyes.

* * *

"AAA-CHOO!" Hoji raised his hand to wipe at his nose. "Tch. What a waste" he complained as he walked along beside Shin. The pair had just finished their daily ritual mediation and spiritual suppression techniques. The basic goal was to focus themselves and their energies into their swords, hoping to spark some kind of instant transformation. The process left them drained and usually very hungry, and none of their nearby "neighbors" were ever willing to share. Therefor, thievery and occasional combat was the only alternative.

"Not quite a waste. See?" Shin said, holding up a large bag full of apples. Hoji dissmissed it as useless, seeing as the food wasn't meat of any kind _or_ alcoholic.

"Tch! What's so great about apples?" Hoji spat. As if in response, an apple hit his ehad and bounced into his lap.

"See for yourself" Shin replied with a mouth full and drooling with apple. Hoji glared at the fruit and took a hesitant chomp out of it. After a few seconds of deliberation, he threw the rest away and grumped on his rock. "Fine. More for me" Shin said as he continued to stuff himself. Shin's noisy eating had attracted and unwanted predator in the distance.

"SHINIGAMI!!" Some ravenous voice screamed out, "Prepare to be devoured!" Yet again, it was some careless, hungry monster that had no sense of eminent danger. Shin refused to even acknowledge the beast, so Hoji picked up his sword and dashed out in front of the creature's path.

"Hey there, bitch!" The creature was stunned for a moment too many. In a flash, a glare of light streaked out from Hoji's sheathe and dissolved into his drawn sword pointed upwards. The creature moaned pitifully and started to dissolve as Hoji marched back to sulk beside his mentor. Shin didn't see what happened, as he had worked the batch of apples down to the bottom of the bag and was desperately searching for a morsel he may have overlooked.

"You're pathetic, ya know!? If you want more just go and take them, jeez." Hoji complained as he sheathed his sword. He sat down again on his little seat with Shin grumbling behind him. "Tch" he grumped.

"Woah! Did you see that!?" a random voice cried out from a distance away. Hoji and Shin perked themselves up instantly and turned to what seemed to be a small caravan of servant-drawn carts heading down the road. Many people had poked their heads from out of the covering of their carts to gaze in awe at the man who had vanquished the beast.

"Hey you! The bald guy!" A man in the frontmost cart called.

"WHO'S BALD!!" Hoji screamed with a demonic face.

"Come on over! We wanna thank you for killing that Hollow for us!"

"Huh?" Hoji and Shin both grunted in unison, and with the same inflection. "Hollow?"


	14. Giant

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"So, what's a Hollow?" Shin asked as he munched on a piece meat. The traveling merchants offered for Shin and Hoji to go with them for protection in exchange for a small portion of their food and shelter.

"That monster your friend defeated was a Hollow. They say they come from another world, made of the suffering and wickedness of a human when they die. That negative-ness twists itself into the form of a monster, and that's a Hollow." The head of the caravan explained calmly.

"Neat" Shin replied as he finished his meat. "So, these things are never really huge, right?" The man looked at him in wonderment, as if Shin had actually encountered giant Hollows.

"Well, not that we know of. I certainly hope not." The man replied.

_If that's the case_ Shin thought, _then what was that thing I fought with the nose? Hmm_

"Where do you guys get all this information about Hollows?" Shin asked politely.

"From shinigami." The man replied. "The ones that usually guard us always talk about their fights and about Hollows, but they're just going off of what other shinigami have told them."

"So," Shin said in a low voice, "no one really knows the truth, eh?" The man looked curiously at Shin, who was taking a long drink of water from a pitcher.

Hoji was devouring food in the adjoining cart like it was going to vanish at any moment. The women in the cart gazed at him with amazed looks and longing stares. He was ignoring them in favor of all the food he had been given, yet he couldn't help but look up to see them still staring at him every now and then. A little recognition wasn't too bad.

"So, are you naturally bald or is it a hair style?" On girl daintily asked. Hoji spit out his food on the ground in anger and turned to the girls with twitching brow and snarling a scowl.

"Who's bald? I have hair! SEE!?" Hoji yelled, pulling his pigtail in display. The girls looked at it long enough to humor him with light laughter.

"Of course. We're sorry." The girls all said separately. Feeling spurned, Hoji gave them one last glare and turned his back to them to continue eating noisily. The cart hit a bump once, then again with the other wheel. Hoji stopped eating for a moment and perked up his head.

"Did you feel that?" Shin asked, peeking his head into the cart. Hoji turned and nodded, then grabbed his sword and followed after Shin who was rushing outside. They both met the ground moving quickly, trying to get to the head of the carts to confirm what they had both felt. Everyone else looked on at them in confusion.

"Stop the caravan!" Shin commanded once he pulled to the front. The men pulling the carts along, all of which were giants compared to Shin and Hoji, looked at each other curiously. Shin turned around from where he was standing with a serious face. "Now." He commanded plainly. As he gave that brief request, a giant hand stomped down on the ground from the other side of a canyon wall.

* * *

A giant Hollow with two massive arms and a snail-like tail slowly hobbled into full view before the two eager shinigami. Hoji grinned widely and placed a hand on his sheathed sword. Shin just stood glaring at the monster. The Hollow stomped its fists wide and bent down to see the two men up close. Hoji and Shin both measured up as the height of one of its exposed teeth. Shin's first observation was that this thing had slits for a nose, not a long protrusion.

"Ahhh! What have we here?" The monster roared. A wave of air rushed against the steadfast two shinigami and slammed into the giant men pulling the caravan. "A hearty meal for me? How very kind." Hoji became rhetorically angered at the monster.

"Hey! That meat in there is mine, buddy. I earned it after killing one of you freaks!" Hoji's joking speech was cut short by Shin, who threw up his hand in front of him. "I was just joking Shin, I know that the people..."

"Go." Shin said, cutting his partner off. "This one dies by my sword." Hoji was about to complain, but realized how futile arguing against a serious Shin would be. He jumped back and rested on top of the first car of the caravan.

"Tch. Showoff." Hoji spat as he sat down. Several heads were popped out of the fabric covering the carts to watch the fight. Most of the girls thought Hoji would be fighting instead.

"What's going on?" one man yelled.

"Hoji, why aren't you fighting?" a girl asked as she spotted him. Hoji shrugged.

"If Shin wants something," he started "then it's gone. No argument." The girls blinked at him then turned their heads back to the statue-esque man that was staring down the gigantic hollow.

"What's the matter, little shinigami?" The Hollow asked patronizingly. "Scared stiff?" Shin didn't move. He was barely breathing. Then, in a daring flash, he drew out his sword and stabbed the Hollow right between the eyes. Before the monster could even react to the pain, Shin sliced down. The path of his sword was traced first with a shining glare, then with the Hollow's spewing blood. The monster's scream shook the very walls of the canyon and broke apart rocks.

Shin was standing warily on the monster's back now, having dodged the blood stream that he created from the monster's face. He took this brief moment to study the monster from behind, mainly its face. It didn't seem real, in fact it looked like a giant mask from the angle Shin was staring at.

* * *

"Okay, ready?" one giant yelled to the others. "_Ishihabe_ on three!" The giants lined themselves up against the oncoming rush of blood from the twitching monster.

"One, two, three!" All at once, the giants smashed their fists together and threw out their open palms as if to block the incoming rush. To Hoji's surprise, they did. Their spell had formed a large barrier of rocks that came jutting from the ground right in front of their hands. Hoji started clapping in approval of the three men, and the rest of the caravan soon joined in.

"Hey, now we can't see the battle!" someone complained. As if on cue, Shin appeared suddenly on top of the wall that the giants had made, and the ground started rumbling. The massive hollow was pushing itself up, groaning loudly at the gaping scar that Shin had left in it.

"Shinigami, what is your name?" the Hollow bellowed out with great anger and force.

"Shin Kenpachi, and you shouldn't be so sad that you've lost to me. After all," Shin said pointing his sword forward, "I'm the strongest swordsman in the world." The Hollow's narrow eyes shot wide open as Shin flew up with a wild grin and his sword drawn all the way behind him, ready to deliver the finishing blow to the scared stiff monster.

* * *

Ishihabe: Stone Wall


	15. Training

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The loud clashing of metal rang out loudly throughout the halls of the estate. Suichi, barely alive, was attempting to draw his target out into the open where he would have an advantage. Maybe. At this point, getting away from Netami alive would be a suitable victory for the dying assassin. Suichi whipped his damaged chain furiously, trying to hold back his advancing adversary. It wasn't working.

"Poor little man" Netami said mockingly as he walked slowly down the hall, deflecting to quickly to follow with his sword. "So inexperienced, and still you think you can take me on." Netami slashed powerfully, blowing a current of air down the corridor. Suichi kicked the wall to his side and shot into an adjoining room, dodging the lethal wind not a moment too soon. He could feel the gaping and bleeding wounds start to catch up to him already.

_This is…good_ Suichi tentatively thought between his breaths. _He's actively pursuing me. I can lead him out now and hopefully he won't catch on to where I'm taking him. The only problem now is how to get out alive…_

"I can still feel your flicker, Suichi" Netami said teasingly as he very slowly peeked his head around the corner. "You can't run from me…" Netami stopped short as he looked into the room. There was no Suichi, only a doll that resembled him. In an added insult to Netami's pursuit, this doll was giving him a dejecting middle finger up. Netami approached the doll with a disappointed face. He lopped its head off with the dull edge of his sword and pushed back his hair.

"Really, Suichi. You're supposed to be a master assassin? You can't even make an elegant esca--" There was a bomb inside the doll that was set to go off. Netami noticed it only too late and twitched his eyebrow in anger.

"_**Bakudan: Kumokoori!**_" Suichi quietly incanted under his breath a fair distance away. The room his explosive double had been placed in became visibly coated with ice, inside and out. He smiled and fled, slowly enough to make sure he was leaving evidence of his presence for his unwitting prey to follow.

Netami stood, nearly frozen, with a steely glare. His perfectly soft hair was coated with a fine frost that would take hours to successfully get out and he couldn't fell anything past his waistline. The word 'BITCH' was spelled plainly in solid ice from where the bomb had been, at the steaming epicenter of the blast. Netami's face crackled as loose ice and frost started falling off, his face twisting into a furious and enraged shape.

"You are dead, Suichi…" Netami said plainly and calmly, despite his psychotic face. "You are…Dead."

* * *

The celebrated heroes of the merchant caravan were busy working up their appetites so they could continue to guiltlessly pilfer from the gracious citizens they had saved. Shin's robe was being washed, forcing him to spar with Hoji topless. The girls didn't mind at all. In fact, the people of the caravan were all taking a break from their regular chores to watch the impressive sight of the two monsters fighting each other.

As always, however, Shin was schooling Hoji on how to use a sword.

Hoji growled as he glared at an unwavering Shin across from him. The audience would be a much better addition to their practice if they weren't silently laughing at him.

"Make a move, man." Shin mumbled to Hoji. Hoji bursted forward in a blur with his sword pointed at Shin and ready to thrust. Shin stepped to the side to dodge the sword and leaned back to avoid Hoji's mid-air spin kick. As Hoji spun, he let his sword follow him and took a swing at Shin, who blocked it and pushed Hoji back into the air.

"Tch!" Hoji yelled as he floated away. "You just made this easier!" Hoji shot forward an open palm and began gathering energy. "_Senkou no Shikyo!"_ The red lightning blasted out of Hoji's hand and into the ground where shin _was_. Shin was already in the air with his sword in both hands. "AGAIN!" Hoji yelled. A smaller burst followed after and Shin deflected it, being pushed to the side as he did.

"The same tactic only works so many times, Hoji" Shin instructed as he continued to deflect the shots. Suddenly, a puff of smoke replaced Shin, and was just as soon dissipated by the rush of red lightning. Hoji perked his eyes and looked around warily. First to the left, then the right, and as he turned to look behind him a specter appeared in the corner of his eye. Shin lunged, white eyed, with his sword ready to split apart Hoji's skull.

"…Two." Shin said as he stopped his hand just short of Hoji's extended forehead. Hoji sighed as they both fell back to the ground.

"Yeah, two-to-one. I still won once, y'know!" Hoji proclaimed.

"Yes," Shin said calmly, "I know. You're getting better." Before leaving completely toward the applauding crowd, Shin turned around and said one last quip. "But I'm still the best." With that, Shin started walking. Hoji gave a short 'Tch' and walked after him, slinging his sword over his back. After their little power display, the citizens got a second wind to accomplish all that needed to be done without asking their shinigami guards and the caravan was off once again.

* * *

Shin slept far apart from Hoji at Hoji's request. The peace of not sleeping next to the obscenely loud Shin gave him a gratifying comfort that he could easily sleep with. Even in his private cart, bordered with preserved meats and various strong drinks, Hoji twitched and writhed in his near sleep. There was a foreboding in the air that he couldn't shake, a pressure that was building and descending form the sky, like rain.

Then he slept, and dreamed. His dream started careening out of control for a fantastic surrealism into a prophetic vision. There was the smell of fire and death, the sounds of ripping flesh, and the echoing laughter of one Shin Kenpachi. A devious man's face with flat, long hair went from innocently menacing to bloody and terrified. Faceless soldiers bled out fountains around a feminine figure sporting talons on each finger. A lanky looking man with knives cut into himself and his eyes lit up with surreal backgrounds and disgustingly gory images.

Then Hoji's mind stopped. It was as if he stepped from reality and into his own dream. There he knelt, on the ground, and looked up at the sky. A man stood floating on air, facing an unimaginable demon of gigantic size. On the man's back was a symbol of a perfectly equal cross, with hooked angles that went apart in all different directions. A '_manji_', a symbol meaning final. Hoji stared for a few more moments before everything faded away into a dank mist and he awoke with wide and fearful eyes.

"…What the hell?" he mumbled out. Deciding the dream was nothing but, Hoji drifted off to dream of the day his head would be full of hair.

* * *

Bakudan: Kumokoori (Bomb: Ice Cloud)  
Manji (Japanese word for a ninety-degree, right facing swastika. Considered holy by Hindu cultures and is the first kanji in the word 'Bankai')


	16. Hearing Voices

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

In this, the Golden Era of the Shinigami, cities are scarce. Towns are fewer. Citadels are a commonplace and mid-wilderness fortresses are pleasant yet expected surprises. A caravan that is asked to cross the vast and unguarded expanse between the major regions and the extents of each family's control, they do it gladly but cautiously. Not even the brightest of adventurers and shinigami experts can predict what waits around any given corner or in any shallow crevice.

It is more than fortunate for any group of wanderers or mercenary caravans to come across strong young souls to help protect their cargo. In most cases, the head of the caravan would pay the shinigami profusely for their efforts and time, even if nothing happened, so that word of the caravan director would spread through the shinigami grapevine and more protection could be offered in the future. This particular caravan, however, was more than willing to part with a meager constitution of two crates of meat and three sacks full of apples to pay off their shinigami guards as they departed.

* * *

"Sorry we can't come into town with you," Shin yelled out as the passengers waved goodbye. "We're fugitives, after all." With that sentiment, Shin took out an apple and bit deeply into it, then started walking off. Hoji was balancing his pay on his extended arms as he marched after Shin.

"Have a safe stay!" Hoji shouted loud enough for the passengers to hear. The girls gave him a warm farewell as he and his partner strode of back into the wilderness. The head of the caravan gave his final good-byes as well, but to the food the two had accepted in place of money.

"I'd have rather they taken the money…" the head whined with tears in his eyes as his best meat and freshest apples disappeared into the trees.

"Tch! You know what sucks!?" Hoji spat as he jogged awkwardly to catch up to Shin.

"Having to carry all that heavy meat instead of these light and luscious apples?" Shin said, offering an apple.

"No, get that away from me." Hoji replied. "Even if we wanted to, we can't go anywhere near any given settlement in broad daylight to sleep or buy food or beat people up. Being a fugitive sucks, man."

"Well, except for beating people up," Shin mused as he chomped, "we can still do all that at night or during an attack of some sort."

"Then we're no better than thieves!" Hoji shot back.

"Why do you care so much all of a sudden about our social standing?" Shin asked apathetically. "You have your weeks worth of meat, you should be happy."

"Yeah well…" Hoji began haltingly, "I've just been paranoid since that giant Hollow attack."

"The thing in the ravine you mean? I didn't think you'd get hurt if you fought it, I just wanted you to take a break is all." Shin explained.

"Not that one, Shin." Hoji replied, motioning to his face with his nearly free hand. "The one with the nose."

Shin stopped walking. Hoji stopped a step short.

"…That thing," Shin started lowly, "wasn't a Hollow."

"You sure?" Hoji asked with some seriousness to his voice.

"Yeah. It had the same stench as one, but much greater. It was as if…" Shin paused to collect his thoughts and form his words. "It was as if many Hollows had come together to make that one…strange."

With the uncomfortableness subsiding between the two, they continued on their not-so-merry way through the think and pitch black forest. The grass rustled and the ground pounded under their heavy footsteps. The trees were strangely far apart and the two barely had to maneuver past them as the walked. Eventually, they came upon a moonlit clearing and set down their respective loot. Shin went off to find some appropriate firewood while Hoji sat and diligently guarded his meat.

"…" came from his surroundings. It was an uneasy, unnatural silence that kept his attention. Hoji's eyes darted back and forth to keep up with the moving presence and the rustling leaves in the wind. Perhaps he had become paranoid over his delicious meat, but this was an unmistakable threat that was running around. He placed a wary hand on his sword and started standing up slowly.

More "…" in a low, hissing sound came from the trees. It sounded like the wind, but there was something in it. Hoji started getting impatient.

"Calm down, boy" a whispering voice said. Hoji's spine straightened out in shock and his eyes widened. The voice seemed to be much closer than he thought it was. "It's nothing to worry about" the voice continued as the wind died down. Hoji's patience ended and he unsheathed his sword.

"It's just the wind…" came from his blade. Hoji's eyes went wide and he turned slowly to stare in his reflection in his sword. There was no Hoji when he looked, but a pair of seductive golden eyes on an orange face.

* * *

Shin marched through the woods with his heavy bundle of dry wood slung over shoulder. The wind had been picking up here and there, making Shin think that it might rain as he pick up his pace. The wind even seemed to be whispering through the leaves and trees at some places.

"This should be enough" Shin said as he picked up one last fallen branch. As he brought it up to eye level to add it to his pile, however, he saw that the branch wasn't dry. It wasn't exactly wet, either, but dripping with some sticky substance that oozed through his hands. In the dark shade of the trees, it was hard to discern just what it was, but it wasn't wanted so Shin threw it away. The branch landed with a thud and splat.

_Branches don't go splat_ Shin thought. He turned around out of curiosity to look at what he did toss back but still couldn't see through the shadows. Then a crack of lightning flashed through the forest. It was an arm, bloody and deformed. Shin took a leap back and thudded against what didn't seem like a tree. Suddenly, Shin was bound against his soft hard place by several sets of entangling branches. From the distance and light of the dim sky, he could make out that they weren't branches, but more arms.

"What the …" A pair of hands closed his mouth and forced his eyelids open as Shin came to the startling realization that his sword was gone from his side. Amidst the gruesome scene of dried, dead arms and legs that Shin had been picking up, his sword floated in the darkness.

"Quite a fine piece of metal, this is…" a raspy, hollow voice said. A huge figure draped in tattered black cloth had entered the clearing and was holding Shin's sword with a shadowed hand.

"Mff m GRHHH!!" (Let me go!) Shin mumbled under his restraints. The shadowy demon raised what seemed to be its head, very high off the ground, and stared at Shin. With the sword in the boney grasp of one hand, it raised its other, skeletal hand, and drew back its black hood.

"…but it can only be a fitting prison for so long, eh Shin?" Spoke the Skull attached to the swirling darkness. Shin's eyes widened with horror, shock, and delight.

This was his soul speaking to him. This was Death itself.


	17. Seeing Things

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Suichi staggered helplessly through the dense woods. Not less than an hour ago, Netami had caught up to him and attempted to exact his anger. The assassin was safe, for the time being at least, as he used the last of his expendable spiritual power to lure him away using a duplicate. His legs were numb and nearly limp as he shuffled through the wild brush. To make matters worse for the wary man, storm clouds were moving in quite rapidly.

"If it's not one thing," Suichi complained. He looked around for someplace to hide and rest, finding nothing but darkening thicket of trees and bushes. If something attacked him now, he'd be done for. He decided, against his better judgement, to proceed onward and try to find a small cave of some sort. He couldn't help but notice how quickly the wind had picked up.

"Ah!" Suichi exclaimed upon spotting a small den. It was just large enough for him to squeeze himself into and rest in a comfortable ball. He crawled and snuggled himself inside the marginally dry and warm cave. Once inside, he went to work on wrapping his wounds and otherwise keeping himself from dying immediately. He winced and grunted as he tightened his bandages with his good hand and teeth. The wind was starting to pick up even more so, so Suichi shuffled his way deeper into the hole.

"I just can't get a break, it seems" Suichi mused. He curled up and leaned against the solid wall of the cave and relaxed. "Oh well," he paused for a yawn, "someone out there is worse off than me…" With his piece said, the assassin drifted off into slumber. He was right, though, as only a short distance away in a clearing beyond the density of the trees, someone was suffering.

* * *

Hoji stood bewildered with his arm guarding his face against the razor-sharp blades of wind that swept past him. The moment he had been waiting for, a moment that defined his very existence alongside Shin, was about to culminate. Hoji regretted ever wanting this day to come now that he was in the middle of it all.

"Tch!" Hoji grunted. "What's with this, sword!?" Hoji's sword was floating in the middle of the chaotic whirlwind, watching its owner struggle.

"You're pathetic!" It hissed out above the winds in a nefarious female voice. "How can you think yourself worthy of wielding me when you can't even fight off a simple HOLLOW?" The wind roared in conjunction with the sword, and Hoji was thrown across the clearing and into a tree, which promptly splintered and bent. Hoji glared up and tried once again to push through the whipping winds to grab at his sword.

"Who the hell do you think you are, sword!?" Hoji shouted as he leaned forward through the cutting winds.

"It's not so easy to learn my name, young fighter" the sword replied. "You must work for it!" The winds picked up and nearly sent Hoji flying once again, but not quite. Hoji punched the ground hard and dug in his hand to inch forward. Then his other hand, and soon his feet were kicking powerfully into the ground. It was as if he was scaling a mountain with sheer winds pushing him downward.

"I…" Hoji grunted as he crawled his way over to the epicenter of the hurricane, "will not…be out done…by a piece…of…METAL!" Hoji shot up with the full force of his body and made a leaping grab for the sword. His fingers extended to their limit and grazed the handle from within the windless area that the sword occupied. It wasn't enough, though, and Hoji was sent rocketing backwards through several trees until the force died down and he dropped to the ground, unconscious. Then, as Hoji's awareness faded, so did the winds, and the sword nestled peacefully in the ground of the clearing.

"He has work to do," echoed the sword through the air, "but he is close to achievement. It won't be long before my name is called out into the world, yet again…"

* * *

Hoji had gotten off easy with his judgement. Shin wasn't faring well at all. His torture of being physically bound from all sides continued as the skeletal mirage continued to look over his sword. Rather, itself.

"You've been quite abusive to this. Haven't you?" the skull inquired without moving. Shin didn't move. He knew what was happening, and decided to relax and let it work itself out. His sword, his inner spirit, was working itself out in the outer world for the first time. Also knowing that this manifestation was most likely still tied in with his mind and body, Shin kept his brain devoid of any activity when possible.

"Not the talkative type, eh?" queried the skeleton. From its free hand made of bone it picked up and apple and took a large bite with its bleached white teeth. The apple bits could be seen as it chewed, but Shin focused on his sword, the metal one, as his spirit continued its speech.

"You obviously know who I am, right?" the figure asked. Shin made no attempt to answer, but it still knew the answer. The deadness in Shin's eyes was an answer enough. "Then you know why I can't tell you my name yet, right?" Shin's eyes came back to life with renewed curiosity and anger.

"MMF-FF? (Why not!?)" Shin shouted still muffled by the ethereal hands. The spirit snapped its bony fingers, moving the hands away from Shin's mouth and throat.

"What was that?" it questioned sarcastically.

"I don't understand" Shin growled in a defeated way. "If you don't want me to know your name, to ascend our power, why would you materialize? To mock me?" The skeleton wagged its finger in front of Shin's face.

"Wrong on several parts, my friend" it said in its deep, hollow voice. "Should you learn my name, I will be that much more free into the world. However, that power is something I can't trust you with at the moment." Shin's eyes became calm again. Even his own inner spirit didn't see him as worthy of possessing a greater level of power. "In due time, Shin Kenpachi…" Shin raised his head and dropped to the ground. The arms, the visions, everything had vanished, including the specter, as the rain of the storm above started falling through the trees.

In due time… echoed the voice through Shin's ears. His sword rested neatly in the ground where the ghost had been, perfectly straight in the ground. Shin walked over and swung it out of the ground. A tree splintered with a resounding thud as the bark blasted off from the blast of air Shin made with his sword. He sheathed it and stared up into the rain.

"I can't help but imagine," Shin mused quietly, "what horrible miracles await me in this world…"

* * *

"Oh, damn" Suichi cursed. The downside to holding up in a small, below ground burrow was realized as the rainwater started dripping in after him. He was already basting in a shallow puddle as it was, and the rain was steadily increasing in speed and density. "My life just sucks today, doesn't it?" he whined as he prepared to crawl out into the rain.


	18. Wake Up!

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Suichi stepped cautiously into a clearing where he saw a dead body greedily clutching a sword in the ground. There was a significant amount of wooden debris scattered across the grass and many broken trees as well.

_Was there some kind of fight here or something?_ Suichi pondered as he crept across the ground with one hand on his wounded arm. He decided it was best to avoid the corpse in case it happened to be a trap and looked around the area for some form of shelter or, at the least, food. Up in a tree, for reasons Suichi couldn't quite understand, there seemed to be a large cache of meat. "Well, that's fortunate" whispered enthusiastically. He started to climb up the tree to grab some of the curious nutrition, when the brush started rustling beneath him.

Suichi made a silent gasp and a fearful face as a familiar figure shambled through the forest and into the clearing. A face he had seen many times before, carrying a nearly fabled sword over shoulder with a guard shaped like a skull's silhouette. Shin Kenpachi, the Mass Killer of Shinigami. The corpse, Suichi figured, must belong to his accomplice Hoji Araijin the defect of a mercenary group far to the south.

"Oi, oi…" Shin mumbled aloud at the unmoving body of his comrade. "Wake up, Hoji." Hoji didn't move at all, so Shin started poking him with the sheathe of his sword. "Wake up." After a few pokes, Hoji's limp body fell to the ground. His sword, still in hand, rested neatly across the grass. Shin stared down with a stone face at Hoji, who still showed no signs of life. Then Shin started kicking him in the gut. "Wake up!"

_What kind of respect is that?_ Suichi thought. Suddenly, the despair lifted as Hoji started coughing on the ground and rose up carefully. He took a few seconds to collect himself until Shin reached out to help him to his feet. Hoji darted his head back and forth with building panic. All at once, he dropped his sword, fell to his knees and raked his head with nervous hands as he screamed with wide eyes.

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHH!! What the hell happened to all the food!?" The scene in the clearing was enough of a clue for Hoji to discover what exactly had happened during his transgression with his sword. He glanced over at the shining metal that was deflecting raindrops in tiny splashes. He grabbed it angrily with both hands and reeled it close to his face. "WHY!? Why waste all that delicious food!? WHAT DID I DO TO YOU!!" With that angry outburst, Hoji threw his sword like a javelin up into the nearest tree he saw. It just missed a now paralyzed Suichi.

"There, there" Shin said very dryly to feign concern. "There will be more meat…more apples, somewhere else."

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT APPLES!!" Hoji hissed menacingly, then went back to sobbing over a pile of desecrated food on the ground. "My meeeeat…how will I get protien now…" As Hoji whined, Shin sensed some form of disturbance nearby. He looked over to the tree that Hoji's sword was now lodged in and started forward in that direction. Suichi saw him coming and attempted to cloak himself.

"_**Takokawa!**_" Suichi whispered with his good hand folded in front of him. Slowly, he disappeared and blended perfectly with the tree on which he crouched. Not a second too soon, Shin scaled to the top of the tree and removed Hoji's sword.

"Oi, Hoji!" Shin shouted. He pitched the sword back down and Hoji caught it by the blade. Shin jumped back down and walked over. Hoji wiped his eyes and rose back up. "We should get to some kind of covering before it rains even harder" Shin suggested.

Suichi decided to do the same. He carefully and silently deactivated his camouflage and jumped from his tree branch perch. Shin's ear twitched at the noise of a tree moving and he whipped his head around, just barely catching a glimpse of the retreating assassin. With glowing white eyes, Shin extended his open hand and grasped hard in Suichi's direction. All at once, Suichi felt as if a mountain had been thrown on top of him and he was sent hurdling down to the ground. All went black for a while…

* * *

Far away from our protagonists, Netami dashed through the vast wilderness that led into the no-man's land known as the Blood Fields. Most common people assume Hollows to be magical animals that have developed basic understandings of speech and communication. Animals, which feast exclusively on shinigami and other high-spiritual latent beings, even each other. No one of this era knows just what hollows are…

Thousands, maybe millions of Hollows inhabited the knolls and caves that these rolling badlands offered. Netami was only focused on finding and killing his would-be assassin before word of his deed had spread through the upper grapevine. A treachery the likes of which Netami had committed would not go unpunished or unseen for long.

"Damn you, Suichi!" Netami cursed as he neared the border between the cartographed region and the wilds. "If the Hollows don't pick you to pieces out here," he dug his feet firmly into the ground, drew his sword and pointed ahead it with both hands beside his face, "then I will."

After coming to a complete stop, and with sword still wielded in his fashionable way, he took one step onto the ankle-high orange grass of the plains. Like an alarm, the resonating blunt roar of one Hollow woke up and sounded off many more. The plains echoed with the hollow screams as the shinigami made his way slowly and merrily deeper into the grassy death-land.

* * *

Takokawa: Octopus Skin (for some Octopi can change their colors to blend in)


	19. Chained by Fate

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Suichi woke up in a dark and humid place. His head hurt badly and his body felt tight. The last few minutes of his consciousness were a blur of confusion and pain, courtesy of the supposedly demented mad killer, Shin Kenpachi. As Suichi's senses returned to him, he could hear the crackling of a fire and feel its heat. He smelled the cooking of meat and at length opened his eyes to a fire inside a cave. Across from the fire sat the other man, Hoji, gnawing on a stick of cooked meat. Suichi looked up warily, and Hoji looked down.

"Oi, Shin! He's awake!" Hoji shouted with a mouth full of food. A rustling of clothes nearby perked Suichi to open both his eyes. First he could only see the dirt-stained socks, then his vision drifted upward to the tattered pants and torn robe. His sheathe was in hand and held over shoulder and his eyes were fixated on the poor floored man. Suichi thought his life was over, that his quest for glory and retrebution had finally come to an abrupt end as Shin lowered down at his knees to stare closer at him. He raised his free hand up to his face and said

"Yo" in a friendly voice. Suichi stopped breathing for a few seconds. "We won't kill you," Shin continued casually as he rolled down onto his butt. "The only reason you're tied up is because you were trying to kill us in your sleep." The sharp swinging of metal sounded and Suichi was free from his bind. He shuffled cautiously to his knees and Hoji held out the blade to him.

"It's yours, man" Hoji said. Suichi took his sword slowly and sheathed it behind his back. Hoji had seemingly lost interest in him and was piercing more meat with his eating stick from a pile near the fire.

"So," Shin started as he crossed his legs and grabbed some meat with his sword, "what brings you out here all beaten and dying?" Suichi looked startled for a second, having forgotten for a while that he was indeed still riddled with wounds from escaping Netami.

"I was," Suichi started shyly, "attacked." Shin looked over at him through the shadow the fire made on his brow.

"By who?" Shin asked.

"A guy" Suichi answered. There was a weird silence after that, as Shin and Hoji were expecting some more information. Suichi darted his vision between the two occasionally, feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

"Relax" Shin said at length, handing him a round, red object. "Apple?" he offered. Suichi extended his hand and haltingly took the apple from the famous rampaging killer…

_How ironic_ Suichi thought as he bit into the apple. _An assassin, hired umpteen times to kill either of these men is now enjoying dinner with them…_ The sudden realization of his plight just hit him: there was none. If they wanted to just kill him and be done with it he'd most likely be dead. Then another thought came through his head but ended up going out his mouth.

"How'd I get knocked out?" Suichi asked. Shin glanced over in the middle of his apple and looked around. There was a rock near the mouth of the cave that he pointed to. Suichi looked over and saw it, curious as to what it had to do with--

"You hit me with a rock?"

"Tch!" Hoji chided, "no you moron! Watch the rock!" Suichi glared over for a moment then looked back. Shin opened his palm and the air became heavy. Then he quickly closed his palm and the rock was crumbled to nothing over the intense force of gravity. The fire swayed spastically for a few moments until the air became normal again. Shin kept his fist extended for Suichi to double take at several times.

"I'm not exactly sure," Shin began modestly, "but I think it has something to do with my spiritual power…or something." Suichi's mouth gaped at Shin. His reputation was certainly reputable under these circumstances.

"It…" Suichi stuttered. Hoji and Shin both perked themselves up to listen. "It's called Spirit Pressure…a shinigami's raw power in a focused form." Shin and Hoji were now listening very intently to this man.

* * *

After the initial shock, Shin and Hoji were ready again. The storm outside occasionally let out a rip of lighting and a blast of thunder but the fire was still hot and the meat was still…there for now. Shin and Hoji sat very properly with swords in laps across the fire from Suichi, staring at him seriously. They had asked to learn, and Suichi wasn't prepared to teach them.

"…so…" Suichi started. Both warriors were steadfast and eager to hear whatever they could about how their powers really worked. "What are you curious about?"

"I-" Hoji attempted to pose a question, but Shin pushed his head down into his own knees.

"Our swords!" Shin exclaimed. "How do we make them release their inner power?" Hoji forced himself back up and spat.

"That was my question!" Hoji shouted. Suichi cleared his throat and grabbed their attention again.

"Shikai" Suichi began, "is what you're talking about. To achieve Shikai, the first state of transformation, you must learn your sword's name. Then, you can activate the release." Suichi thought he had given a decent explanation, but Shin and Hoji were impatiently glaring at him.

"And?" Hoji blurted. Suichi decided to take out his sword and demonstrate. Everyone stood up. Suichi unsheathed his sword and held it sideways with his fists touching at the thumb and index fingers.

"Coil Endlessly, Haganerensa!" The transformation was almost instant for Suichi, but Shin and Hoji were able to observe every moment with undeterred concentration. Lightning struck a tree just outside the cave, and no one moved. The sword seemed to melt into light and mold into a finely crafted chain that started at the elbow and ended as a spike coming off of Suichi's middle finger. With the event over, Suichi raised up his metal-wrapped hand for the two to inspect. "And that's it!"

Hoji and Shin were still unimpressed and anxious for something else to be explained. They both took their swords in hand and drew them out.

"Mine looks like a giant skeleton" Shin said as he eyed his sword over for anything odd.

"Mine just tried to kill me…" Hoji replied.

"Hey!" Suichi exclaimed. "You can't just expect to know the names automatically!" Shin and Hoji started listening again. "It took me years of serious meditation and practice to learn my sword's name, and I barely have all of it's potential unlocked! There's even another level after the initial release that I can't even describe to you." Once Suichi was calm again, Shin and Hoji sheathed their swords again.

"Well then," Shin started, "it seems that we've been doing just fine on our own until now."

"Yeah" Hoji nodded. Suichi looked between the two of them several times. A huge flash of lighting and the roar of loud thunder masked the movements of the two villains, as both swords were now pointed straight at Suichi's neck.

"Train with us, boy" Shin growled. In the darkness, his eyes seemed to glow through the air itself. Even Hoji's teeth were flashing brilliantly with bits of meat clouding an otherwise perfectly menacing mouth. Suichi held his hands up in surrender and returned his sword back into his hand in its normal state.

"Can't we wait until it stops raining?" he pleaded. Shin and Hoji glanced at each other and shot back down to stoke the fire back up. Suichi dropped to his knees and sheathed his sword with his head hung down.

_What the hell?_ Suichi begged internally. _What have I agreed to do, exactly? Help two extremely wanted bandits become even more powerful!? This is terrible…The old man probably thinks I'm dead by now. Netami probably thinks I…_ Suichi returned his face up to the other's level. Shin and Hoji were both leaning against the cave walls and staring outside with their swords tightly gripped in hand.

_That's right!_ Suichi thought with renewed vigor. _As long as I'm with these two, Netami wouldn't dare try and track me! It's perfect. He may be a prodigy fighter, but these two are serious killers! As long as I'm here…I'm safe._ All at once, the rains stopped and brief flashes of sunlight streaked to the ground as the clouds started to part.

"Get up" Shin said as he started out. "It's ass-kicking time." Suichi let his head fall limp onto his shoulder and he started to weep.

"Dammit, it's never easy for me is it?" Suichi whined. Safe though he was, he was also at the mercy of these two rampant murderers and their twisted whims…not a fair trade. Regardless, he drew out his sword and marched forward.


	20. Shin Kenpachi, Wanderer

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Down the road they strode, the three runaways of the world's greatest war. Shin Kenpachi, Hoji Araijin, and the assassin Suichi behind. In this, the Great Golden Age of the Shinigami Wars, these aimless men are of a special kind. The kind who accept only the responsibilities they make themselves and shun those who attempt to guide them in a better direction. The kind of men who will fight whatever fight they can to prove that it can be fought regardless of one's strength. These are the lost men of the world, the _Manzenryuu_.

However, these men aren't the only ones who walk such an unmarked path. Many different people have strayed form the thin edge between protecting the weak and giving work to those who do. In this wilderness that borders the great region that wars with the citizens of the Seireitei, there is a hamlet of peaceful people who are found to be under the constant crushing thumb of destiny, inches from being snuffed into mush. All because of those who fight for no one else…this is where we rejoin Shin Kenpachi.

* * *

"Damn you, Shin" Suichi whined. Shin glanced over in his direction, not breaking his relaxing stride.

"What now?" Shin asked.

"Eighteen hours…" Suichi quivered. "Do you two usually fight for eighteen hours straight?""

"Meh" Hoji huffed apathetically. "We could've kept going if you hadn't've passed out all of a sudden like that."

Suichi made a long face with a smile. _Maniacs…_ he thought sullenly. _At least Netami's off my ass though…_

"Oi!" Shin exclaimed as he crested the hill. "There's a town down there!" Hoji came up the hill and gazed down with Shin, Suichi following closely behind only to collapse at their feet. "Maybe we can steal some food and camp in the woods…"

"No," Suichi said from the grass. "I doubt that's necessary…"

"Really? Hoji asked as he looked down. "We're both fairly wanted men. Staying in the woods is a pretty sound defense against getting caught up in a huge battle we don't need to fight."

"That was behind us…" Suichi mumbled as he rose up to his feet again. "Back in the other region, you're wanted. We've crossed the border between there and here already, so I doubt anyone really knows about you guys right now." Shin and Hoji gave a long pause as the stared at each other. Hoji's eyebrow cocked up, and Shin's eyes drifted slowly down into the valley. Before either could give a proper exclamation to announce their happiness, Suichi fainted. Hoji looked down, waited for movement, and kicked Suichi's body.

"Wake up…"

"That doesn't work" Shin said.

* * *

Carrying Suichi over shoulder, Shin walked down the peaceful, empty street of this calm little town. The homes weren't the same architecture that he had seen in most other places, having a more serene feel to them. They all looked much more spacious besides, with green tiled roofs and multiple floors. The walls were made of stone and plaster, and even the streets were carved of stone.

"Nice place" Hoji said.

"I suppose," Shin replied warily. "Do you notice something weird?" Hoji glanced over at Shin, then started looking around. Windows in houses only ever showed brief flashes of occupancy. Whatever people happened to be watching them didn't continue for long.

"Feel familiar, eh?" Hoji joked. Suichi moaned loudly and Shin repositioned him over his back while holding his legs in place.

"We should find somewhere to rest" Shin said. Hoji nodded and the both picked up to a light jog down the street. As they rounded the corner and left sight, the windows cracked open in the upper stories of the houses to make sure they were truly gone. In the center of town was a dormant fountain in front of a very spacious looking building. Shin and Hoji looked at each other, shrugged, and started inside.

"Hello?" Shin called out. The place, while nicely furnished, was completely empty. A fireplace glowed with but a few small embers across the large room. There was enough space for a duel to take place, even. Large mats made of animal fur lined in front of the fireplace, low tables and high tables with chairs at a bar for drinks. A sign that read 'Welcome, Adventurers!' hung above a small counter in the corner.

"It's an inn" Shin said dryly.

"I guess so," Hoji said suspisciously, "but why isn't anyone here?"

"Well, they are here" Shin said as he laid Suichi down on a large, bearskin mattress. "They're all just hiding for no reason."

"Right…" Hoji replied. He took a look around at the hall and spun around in place until he was at the dead center of the building. "OI!!" he began as loudly as he could. "Wherever you're hiding and for whatever reason, come out now!" Without provocation or ration, he unsheathed his sword and held it with strength. "We'll find you regardless, anyway!!"

"Hoji…" Shin lowed.

"Yeah?" Hoji pleasantly replied. Without the time to turn his head the whole way, Shin was already in the air, spinning at the hip with his heel fast approaching Hoji's face. The kick sent Hoji straight through the air and into the wall while Shin gracefully landed on both feet with his arms lax.

"Don't scare these people any more than they obviously are…" Shin explained very calmly. "The last thing we want right now is to sleep in the woods against our will." Hoji sheathed his sword and stumbled out of the hole he made, nodding ashamedly as he walked back over. "I'm sorry, but we need a room and some food. Can anyone help us here?" Shin shouted. From the corner desk, a young woman rose up slowly and with great fear on her face.

"Umm…" she cooed. "We have…a room, but…money…" Through her hesitance, Hoji picked up on the important matter and went over to Suichi's sleeping body. After a moment of rummaging he pulled out a hefty bag of coins and walked them over to the counter.

"That enough?" Hoji asked. The woman undid the tie-string and a pile of coins came out. With glowing eyes, she reached over across the counter and rang a small bell. Out of concievably nowhere, a lively bunch of workers came rushing out with happy faces.

"Welcome, weary travelers!" They all called out in chorus. Shin and Hoji backed against each other with great discomfrot, having never experienced this degree of hospitality.

'Oh, you boys look tired.' 'Look at these tattered robes you're wearing!' 'We'll stitch them up for you right away!' 'Is that your friend over there?' 'Are you boys soldiers?' 'I like your swords!' The questions and comments came at non-stop. Shin and Hoji were abound in a mist of confusion. Before they knew it, they had been disrobed and refitted with loose silken evening robes and pants with their swords still in tight grip.

"Don't you worry," cried out an elderly woman as she left. "We'll fix your clothes for you by morning!"

"Are you boys hungry?" a large man called out from the long bar area. "I can make anything you want me too!"

"Meat!" Hoji shouted, finally shrugging off his insecurity and pacing over.

"How much?" he asked, reaching down for a large bundle of raw meat.

"As much as you can make! I don't care what it is, as long as it's meat!" Hoji planted himself down on the chair and leaned closely over the bar counter, licking his lips with wide eyes.

* * *

Shin, more curiously attentive of his surroundings and the degree by which they had changed, approached the now cheery and pleasant young woman at the desk.

"So, were we really that menacing as poor people?" Shin asked casually.

"I'm very sorry about that," she admitted bashfully. "Our town has come under attack from bandits recently. They sweep through randomly and kidnap any women they find, stealing all our food and money as they go! They're horrible…I'm sorry we grouped them in with you."

"Eh, no worries I suppose" Shin said laxly. Hoji was happily eyeing down the food being prepared in front of him and several servants were carrying Suichi up a flight of stairs. "If those bandits do come, though, don't be afraid to ask us for help."

"But, you don't understand!" she advised. "These men are very powerful! They're part of the _Kyuuhiouto_, a ruthless organization against the Emperors that ransack everything they come across! They can't be stopped…" She would have gone on, but Shin gave her insurance. He had drawn out hiss word and slung it over shoulder, gently brushing her bangs out of her face with the tip.

"Well, fancy names and titles don't matter to us" Shin explained through the shadows on his face. He straightened up and started off in Hoji's direction. He looked back through his glowing eyes that shone even brighter with the glare from his sword and finished to the newly fear-struck woman:

"We're just a couple of rogues on the loose…"

* * *

Translations

Manzenryuu (Aimless Style. Manzen can also mean perfection, the 'Perfect Style')

Kyuuhiouto (Nine Secrets Gang)


	21. Oka Maganeba

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

In the peaceful little village situated near the contesting borders, Shin and Hoji were held in high regard. No one else in town, nor in the neighboring towns, had their own swords. Many children had always fantasized about the day when someone would come along and use their swords for good, but the wiser elders had long ago given up hope. Shin restored that hope to everyone with his presence and finesse.

After their money had outlived itself, Shin and Hoji kept their welfare by helping around town. Chopping wood, building houses, hunting game and the occasional uneventful mountain scouting missions. It had been quite a while since our heroes had arrived in the hamlet, and they were starting to like it. Except for Suichi, of course, whose paranoia wouldn't lessen at all. He even seemed to get more jumpy each day. Although this was due in part to Shin and Hoji's relentless quest for combative mastery and the methods they implied for it, Netami was also a hidden concern of his.

_He's either long dead or on his way_ Suichi lamented. His fear was abolished with the sharp slicing of air from behind him. Suichi threw back his arms and caught the blow of the blow that was about to hit him. Something was strange about this blade, however, as most swords weren't made of wood.

"Awesome!" cheered the child from behind. Suichi turned around and let go of the stick. "Did you guys see that!?" he asked his friends excitedly. "He didn't even see me and he still caught it! Say, can you teach us how to do that?" he asked. Suichi chuckled softly and patted the kid on the head.

"It's not something that just anybody can learn" Suichi explained. "Kendo takes years of hard work and discipline to master." The kids looked at him with awe, until they heard the loud crashing of metal in the distance.

"Well, what about Mr. Shin?" one child asked. Suichi sighed and looked off towards the river.

"He's an exception" Suichi begrudgingly admitted. "He's insane and ignores the 'years of practice' rule…"

Down by the river, Shin and Hoji were fighting on top of the water. How they went from calmly fishing to lightning-speed fencing, neither one really knew. The water was exploding all around them, rocks were shattering, fish were swimming upstream to avoid them and then ultimately exploding under the combined pressure. No sound was as loud as the rapid clangs of their swords as they swung.

"I'll dice you!" Hoji screamed with his horrific grin.

"I'll obliterate you!" Shin shouted back in reply, his face stern with hatred.

"HEY!" Suichi shouted. Shin and Hoji stayed their crossed blades and looked over at him. Suichi was fuming at them, as the smoking craters and bloodied running water under their feet. "Aren't you supposed to be working!?" Shin and Hoji glanced at each other. "Why are you fighting?"

Shin and Hoji moved slowly apart and shrugged in unison.

"Are you guys mocking me…" Suichi growled. Shin and Hoji sheathed their blades, picked up their buckets only half-full of fish meat, and started back themselves with Suichi stomping back angrily.

"What's his problem?" Hoji inquired.

"Not sure" Shin replied. "He's probably just angry because he can't duel with us effectively…or something."

"Tch" Hoji grunted. "Too bad for him. It ain't gonna get easier." Shin chuckled and cocked his brow as they both reentered the town.

* * *

Back at the inn, Shin and Hoji were finishing their meals while scrubbing the floors and walls. As part of their pay, they also had to clean out the fireplace once the wood stopped burning. The receptionist girl was busy carrying a load of their laundry as she entered the first floor lobby. The floor was shining and the walls were spotless, as Shin was working himself to a sweat with the remainder of a sandwich hanging from his mouth.

"My, you boys certainly do work hard…" she noticed.

"Nah," Shin replied modestly as he gulped down the rest of his dinner. "We're just paying our dues."

"Yeah" Hoji continued. "I just wish Suichi would help us with it."

"You guys spent all my money without asking!" Suichi yelled from the resting seat near the fireplace that Hoji was crouched in front of. "You two are responsible for most of the damage around here anyway!"

"That's not true!" Shin yelled. "It's your shikai that whips around with total abandon and wrecks everything in sight. Our swords are just swords…"

"And yet they still make more marks than mine!" Suichi interrupted. Hoji grimaced with his back turned to the conversation and gripped his sword. Aiming at the fireplace, he swung heavily into it, sending a blast of air rushing up the chimney. A cloud of black erupted over the roof of the inn and into the street below.

"…" Hoji stared. The gust backfired all over him and the sitting area, coating the tables and cushions and fur rugs with a layer of gray and black dust. Suichi made a wide-eyed, angry face of his own facing Shin, who looked on in pity.

"Geez, man" Shin said, "you need to watch that." Hoji started shaking angrily and glared down at his sword. Just before he was ready to shout to the high heavens in curses and other vile language, the door was thrown open.

"OH, my my my! What a horrid little hobble this place is!" sounded out a deep, feminine voice. The reception girl froze up in place and dropped her basket of laundry. Shin looked on with building curiosity, while Hoji and Suichi turned and stared with hostility.

Bound by a hot-pink belt on his slender, muscular waist, was one of the shinigami of the Kyuuhiouto. "Hey, hey babies!" He cheered in his oddly feminine tone while moving his hips and pumping his hairy arms, "**Oka Maganeba** is here! Roll out the good carpet and prepare your best food!" As the 'man' in lipstick, blush and other overly feminine dressings made 'his' way across the room, two skinny men with hoods made their way after him with swords ready to draw. Shin's mouth moved a few inches down his face in general disgust.

"Well now, honey honey!" sang the man-woman. He drew out his sword and pointed it out at the cowering reception girl's neck. Her eyes went wide and her mouth quivered in fear. "I do hope you can find a place to squeeze me in for the night. My men and I are in very dire need of a place to rest after our long, hard day. Right boys?" The men nodded once, then returned to acting like armed statues.

Hoji started over with his face masked in shadow and a furious scowl. He put a steady hand on his sword and started to draw it out when Suichi pulled him down behind the cushion.

"Don't be an idiot!" he softly scolded. Hoji said nothing but continued to glare. "You heard her before, right? This guy…if he is a guy, is really strong! What if you can't take him on?" Hoji shrugged Suichi off and continued over. Before he could step out of the sitting area, however, he perked his head up and looked over.

"Excuse me," a voice said politely from behind Oka. He batted his lashes and turned around.

"Yes?" In slow motion, Shin's sweeping roundhouse kick came to full impact with Oka's face. The air rumbled lowly as Oka went sailing across into the adjacent wall. Before the two guards could draw out their swords, Hoji had his down in the floor and was propped on it like a walking stick. With a smile and a gleam from his narrow eyes, Hoji forced both men into instant unconsciousness without moving.

"Nice kick" Hoji praised. Shin drew out his sword, nodded, and started walking over to the crumbling hole where the curly-haired stranger was seething from.

"Oh?" Oka said effeminately. "What a hard kick. I'd like to see the muscles that delivered that kick." Oka stood back up with sword in hand, staring down the still approaching, emotionless Shin. Oka batted his lashes again, gave a pouting smile and took and exaggerated stance. Standing up on the balls of his feet with toes pointed out and knees bent, he pointed his sword down from over his head and placed the tip on the back of his hand.

"Come and get me, big boy" Oka taunted with a wink. Shin shivered in disgust and took up his pose, bent knees and single hand wielding his sword at the man, pointed to the side with a fully extended arm.

"Oh, I'll get'cha" Shin replied murderously. "Right in the throat."

* * *

Oka's name is a pun to his lifestyle. **Oka Ma**ganeba. Okama (crossdresser)


	22. Defiance

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Oka leaped into the air with his sword draw fully up in both hands and legs pirouetting, ready to cut Shin in half. He sang out his descending roar with operatic harmony, and finished with a lavishly feminine grunt as his sword came to an abrupt stop on Shin's. Then, Shin flicked his sword and sent Oka's spiraling away. Oka turned desperately to make a grab, but Shin's sword was already at his neck.

"Boo" Shin taunted. Oka didn't move at all, but he looked down with his eyes. Oka's sword didn't clang against the wooden floor, either, as Hoji had made his way into the field and caught it in his free hand. Smiling his eagerly vicious smile, Hoji lightly tossed Oka's sword up and down.

"Nice weight" Hoji said tauntingly. "Great balance, too. This is a pretty good sword." Hoji started pacing, still measuring and judging the sword with his analytical eye. Oka started getting tense about his sword being in another person's hand for that long. Shin kept his eyes locked dangerously on Oka's, waiting for the oppurtunity to lop off his head, so Oka got an idea. He winked at Shin, causing him to recoil momentarily. That moment was enough for Oka to punch Shin right under the ribs and then kick him away while he was down. Hoji looked over in surprise to see the charging Oka coming at him strong. Hoji raised both swords and readied to fight.

First, he tossed Oka's sword back to him, which Oka took as an attack and slapped it away to his left. Then Hoji threw his sword back behind his back and Oka swiped with his left hand to grab his sword and block a tremendous blow at the last second. Hoji picked himself off the ground and did a twisting stomp-kick right on Oka's throat. Oka jumped back and recovered quickly, swinging down as Hoji closed which forced him up into the air again. Oka stabbed at him in mid-air, but Hoji softly pushed the sword away with his hand and landed, facing up to the slightly taller man and readying another offensive.

While Hoji and Oka clashed violently, the receptionist girl rushed over to the still writhing Shin.

"Mr. Kenpachi! Are you alright?" she shouted with concern. Shin shot back up with wide eyes and a stale face. He looked over as the strange man and his teammate fought. "You should go, sir. He'll only overwhelm--" Shin dashed off without letting her finish. Oka blocked and deflected Hoji's rushing slashes in time to watch Shin plant his sword in front of his path and vault on it. While upsidedown in the air, he delivered a hard kick to Oka's face. The force was great enough to send the freak through the door and out into the street. Shin landed and pulled his sword back out, ready to proceed.

"Hey! How dare you attack him!?" one of Oka's security guards yelled.

"We'll kill you!" the other said. Unfortunately, they were both stabbed in the chest from behind by Suichi's shikai. Shin and Hoji dashed out while Oka was still getting up.

"Oh? More fighting?" Oka said haughtily. He stood up and whipped off his robe, revealing his insanely tight six-pack below the tight wrapped shirt he wore around his chest. Shin and Hoji shared a mutual look of disgust as the frighteningly feminine man started posing and running his hands through his hair. "Well, I suppose my body just can't help itself. If your iron-hard wills want to clash swords, than clash we shall!" Oka posed again with one leg running parallel with his entire body and his sword pointed at the two near his hip.

"You're all kinds of weird" Hoji bluntly said. Oka's jaw dropped at the accusation, but he failed to retort in time with Shin's advance. Once in range, Oka kicked his leg down hard, with Shin absorbing the whole of the blow on his free arm. He could feel his arm fracturing slowly, and dashed out again. Now inches from his face, Shin glared his wild, killing glare and froze Oka long enough to deliver a huge sweeping slash from his waist to his shoulder. As Oka riled in pain, he shot his own cut to Shin's throat which Hoji caught with a wild grin.

Hoji pushed his sword down into the ground and took his own sword in a reverse grip. Oka knew what was coming, and he retreated just in time. Hoji had swiped at a nearly full circular path with his sword, which he then switched back to his normal grip. Hoji kicked the grounded sword back out at Oka, who caught it this time and narrowly blocked Hoji's second-part combo. With the straight slash, Hoji had his arm almost straight back and reversed his grip to swing again. Then, his arm was wrapped around his torso and he used the momentum of the blocked slash to switch his grip again. Over and over, Hoji would swing and Oka would block while Shin held his sword overhead with both hands.

"Rin ran Rin ro rar..." Shin chanted over and over. Oka noticed this and caught Hoji's next swipe with the guard of his sword. Hoji looked shocked as Oka reeled back and headbutted him across the way and into the inn wall. Oka began to rush into Shin, but Shin was already done.

"**Boko no...**" Oka could feel the massive pressure building. Stones broke, roofs nearly collapsed, the wells all around town shot geysers of water, and every single window broke. "**TAIYOU!!**" Shin swung down...

* * *

After the battle, the villagers had started planning reconstruction for the obliterated block that Shin had inadvertently destroyed with a single swing. Of course, because Shin had destroyed it, they had no intention of asking him to help with the project. The receptionist girl was the only one who saw the attack besides Suichi and Hoji, and she was sworn to secrecy by them both. Why, no one dared to ask. As for Oka, or what was left of him, he was given to his barely living guards to return to the Kyuuhiouto with a warning from Shin:

'In fighting me, there is no hope for you people. Surrender'

So, all in all, the day had been saved by Shin and Hoji, and partly Suichi. After a few more days of decent rest, however, a reply to their warning came back in a message arrow.

"Oi, Shin!" Hoji shouted from across the inn. Shin turned from his spot at the bar where he was eating and flashed over to him.

"Yeah?" Shin replied with food in his mouth. Hoji, with a very angry face and twitching brow, turned around to show the message arrow lodged in his back. Shin looked at it for a second before saying "it's nice, but why not get a piercing where people can see it?"

"READ THE GODDAMN MESSAGE, SHIN!!" Hoji screamed. Shin pulled out the arrow and Hoji stretched out his shoulders, ignoring the pain and warm trickle of blood as he went over for medical attention. Shin opened the scroll on the arrow and read quietly back at the bar, which he flashed over to as well.

_Dear Shin Kenpachi_ the message read. _We have received your little "message" that you etched into the broken husk of our Financial Enforcer. It is unfortunate that we have to cross our swords at such an inopportune time, isn't it? While my organization would greatly like to aid with the current war, in between all the business and chances really gives us no time to do so. Therefore, I am offering you a way out of this predicament. If you will travel southwest of your current position to the little town of Riev (pronounced Reev), we will have our properties manager waiting for you to discuss business. If you still refuse to cooperate with us, however, he has been given orders to take you out. Sincerely, but with no comitment to the matter,_

_General-at-Arms Ken Yaburashiji_

The remainder of the letter now burned to cinders in the fireplace as Shin gathered his men. Outside the inn, a huge fence had been constructed around the still-being repaired hole that shin had made. Everyone watched them as the trio left silently down to the river.

"The inn girl said that the river flows straight into the next town, Riev" Hoji explained.

"Good" Suichi replied. "Now hopefully we can straighten this mess out without anymore conflict."

"Tch" Hoji dejected. "You really don'y know either of us very well. This ain't a peace mission."

"We're going to kill this man" Shin lowed. "Kill him as another reminder to who these people are messing with..." Suichi looked in horror at the seriousness of this man and the ecstatically wild grin of the other. These men, in all seriousness, were dangerous to have in any region. Their presence was enough to ignite an entirely new kind of Hell, and in all luck, Suichi would be caught up in that hell.

* * *

"Thank god they're leaving" one of the townsfolk said to the bar. "Those hooligans have caused us enough trouble, even if they did get rid of that freaking perv..."

"Be nicer to them!" the receptionist girl scolded. "They're just...excited about their work is all." She took up the dishes as the man huffed and wandered off into her dreamy little memory. Shin's attack was like a sparkling blast from heaven, with all the bright light of his swinging sword reflecting off the drops of water and the shards of glass. It had taken her breath away the first time, and even now the image of the scene made her stumble her way into the kitchen...

* * *

The chant is a reference to the nonsensical chant from GaoGaiGar. It has no real meaning beyond that.

Boko no Taiyou: Hollow Sun.


	23. The Town of Riev

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

From the outer-most marked borders of Riev the trio arrived. Shin and Hoji walked upon the flowing river, ignoring its speed and keeping their own pace, with Suichi strolling on the banks. Over the cresting hill they could see the smoke of houses and the stumps of trees cut for wood. They were close.

"How are we going to do this?" Suichi yelled at the men in the water.

"Do what?" Hoji asked.

"Kill this man" Suichi clarified, "especially not knowing who he is."

"Easy" Shin started. "He's expecting us. We'll announce ourselves and wait for him to come to us." The resounding certainty of Shin's plan made Suichi suspicious.

"I doubt it will go that smoothly" Suichi interjected. Shin turned to him. "Remember Oka?" to which both Shin and Hoji shivered in disgust. "He had bodyguards with him. If these Kyuuhiouto guys are really all that they're cracked up to be, then this guy will have bodyguards too. And most likely, he'll have more."

"Why would you say that?" Shin asked. As soon as he asked, he knew the answer that Suichi would say.

"Because he's expecting us" Suichi answered with a shadowy smirk. Shin smirked back with just as much menace, and directed his smirk over to Hoji, who reeled back slightly with a curious face.

"...what?" Hoji asked as Shin smiled at him. Shin leaned in, widened his eyes and jutted out his jaw to smile even harder and creepier. "What!?" Hoji shouted, now getting scared. Suichi watched them frolic like idiots as Shin scared Hoji and slapped his head.

* * *

Down in the shanty-like town of farms and huts a troop of black-clad soldiers strode down the street. Each particular nameless man wore a standard shinigami robe with short hair cuts and masks that covered their all but their eyes. In the center of that group walked a shorter, much fatter man with a bowl cut, pudgy cheeks spotted with acne, a grossly thin mustache below his spherically bulging nose and very thin beady eyes. He was loudly munching on a large roll of some kind and glancing about between the gaps of his man-wall even now and then. Within the plentiful little houses hid the villagers, quivering behind whatever cover they had ready inside lest the terror would sweep down on them.

"Sir," one guard began with dignity, "where would you like to rest and wait for this Shin Kenpachi?"

"Not now!" the ugly man whined in a crackly voice. He munched hungrily more so on his food and wiped away the plentiful mess from his mouth. "Why aren't there any good restaurants here!?" He shouted.

"Because this is farmland, sir" on of his guards said. "The food used ins restaurants is grown here."

"I know that!!" the leader whined childishly. "Don't make me punish you!" The threat of punishment sent a sharp chill up every guards spine. "Anyway, let's find a spot and rest. This walking is irritating my feet." The guards immediately twitched their heads quickly to search for an adequate spot.

"How about over there?" on guard said, pointing to a flowing field of grain with a single fruit tree just across the way. Their leader stared at it blankly, then looked over to his left.

"OH! Let's wait in there!" he shouted, pointing to a women's bathhouse. The guards' faces sank as their employer started rushing off without regard.

"Wait, sir!" one guard shouted, trying to catch him.

"Wait?" the man repeated spitefully. The guard stopped dead and held his breath. "You foolish little ant, telling me to wait! I am **Toshiro Watanabe**, the Property Manager of the Kyuuhiouto! I can make it so you were never born with my sword and travel far into the future to bring down the apocalypse square on your ass! **And you tell me to wait!?** **I Should kill you!"**

The terrified guard riled back far and fell over as the stout, dwarf-like man loomed over him with his squinting eyes and his fat hand on his sword handle. The other guards quivered likewise, until the silence was ultimately broken by some boisterous announcer.

"YO! HERE WE ARE! SHIN KENPACHI AND COMPANY HAVE ARRIVED!" From the far side of town, where the mill met with the force of the local river, three strangers in tattered robes walked down the streets. One man with a nearly-bald head was spinning about and shouting their arrival with great vigor. "If the Kyuuhiouto are here, then prepare for a huge beat down, cause we came here to kill!!" The guards all placed their hands upon their swords and furrowed their brows. Toshiro turned around and moved up to the front of the pack with his arms crossed. Then, seeing the strangers approaching directly, he snapped his fingers.

"Oi! Hoji!" Shin shouted. "That's more than enough. If he's here, than he'll definitely come out soon." Hoji skipped back to Shin's side and rejoined the group as they came upon an ugly man sitting in a chair in the middle of the street, bordered by guards.

"Oh? Why hello" Toshiro said casually. "I'm surprised you arrived as fast as you did...allow me to introduce-"

"Excuse us" Shin said, brushing past the guards. Hoji bowed and Suichi just jumped over, and the three continued on down the wide road, completely ignoring the now stunned with anger Toshiro.

* * *

"Did you see that guy?" Hoji said quietly. "He looks like he got mutilated with a bokken made from an ugly tree that grows on the south face of disgusting mountain!" Shin stifled his laughter as best he could, letting it escape in short bursts of compressed squeaks.

"That's cruel" Suichi chuckled. Unfortunately, Toshiro heard them. His face was flushed pure red. Toshiro drew out his short sword and pointed it furiously at the proceeding three men.

"Kill them!" Toshiro commanded. The symphonic sounds of unison swords unsheathing perked up Shin's ears. He stopped his laughter long enough to turn as the guards charged full force. "ESPECIALLY KILL THE **BALD** ONE!" Hoji's face twisted quickly and he snapped out hiss word. In a flash, he was already poised to kill the unsightly man with his sword at his fat neck. Toshiro was paralyzed for a moment. Beyond the sword stopped motionlessly in front of his neck by the evil looking man looming over him, he saw that all his guards were already face down in the dust. The other two men, one in the tattered, open robe and the other wearing a skin-suit, started approaching.

"Even if I were totally bald," Hoji started with a growl, "I'd look infinitely better than you." Toshiro twitched his face in terror and pursed his lips in fear. "You look like a frog with a stomped-in face" Hoji mocked once again, lowering his head. From the angle that he stood, Hoji's face was black with shining white eyes and a horrid white grin, like a monster. Toshiro backed away a few steps ,then tripped over himself and fell to the dirt.

"Y-y-yo-you-you don't want to mess with m-m-me" Toshiro fearfully stuttered. Hoji raised his sword up over his head. Shin grinned and watched, Suichi turned his head and scoffed. When Hoji swung down, the house inf front of him had its windows blown away and the steps cave in instantly, but there was no blood. Toshiro was gone. Hoji blinked and looked around. There was still no one ins the street but the trio and the unconscious guards.

"Like I said" sounded out Toshiro, now confident as he came from the women's bathhouse with a scantily clad young woman at sword point in front of him, "you don't want to mess with me!"

"Damn" Suichi said, "he's fast!"

"Heh" Shin scoffed. Despite Suichi's surprise, Shin was still smiling as he had been before. Hoji was at a loss for explanation, but stared ahead with his same killing intent at the fat man hiding behind a lovely girl.

"What will you do now?" Toshiro taunted, keeping his blade close to the gagged female's throat. "If any of you get to close, I'll take this woman's life!" Suichi stood serious for a moment, then vanished completely. Shin didn't even notice him leave or see where he went, but he was too amused to care. Hoji was, of course, unmoved. He lowered his sword and raised up his other hand, pointing his middle finger straight at Toshiro's head.

"What are you doing now?" Toshiro shot out. He took a step back and yanked the woman along with him. "If you come close I'll kill her!"

"Doesn't matter" Hoji said. "I can kill you from here." At that, a small orb of red and white light appeared at Hoji's finger tip. He kept his arm perfectly still, aiming right between Toshiro's beady eyes, which widened as soon as he knew what Hoji was doing.

"**Senkou no...**" he began. Toshiro's steady sword hand was now shaking at the squirming woman's throat. He gulped loudly and reversed his grip to hold his sword pointing at Hoji. "**...itami**" Hoji finished sternly. The ball shot out in an instant flash, piercing the young woman straight through her exposed chest between her bosoms. Hoji gasped, sheathed his sword and flashed over, and caught the woman as she fell back down before she hit the floor. She was unconscious, and moreover naked, as Hoji held her and gazed at the dark-red mark he made on her. Without and physical damage, his attack had made her entire body burst with immense muscular pain.

"Dammit, how!?" Hoji shouted. From behind him, in the middle of the street, he heard his opponent cackling annoyingly.

"I am Toshiro Watanabe!" he announced. Hoji snapped his head around and growled. "And this" began the ugly man, holding his sword pointed at the sky, "is my zanpakuto! _Hiyakugama!_" Hoji laid the girl down gently and stood back up with his face shrouded with black and his hand on his sword handle. He glared up at Toshiro who evilly grinned back, unaware of the pain about to fall on him from behind.

Before Shin's flying kick connected with Toshiro's face, Hoji smiled.

* * *

A bokken is a wooden training sword, for those of you who don't know.

Senkou no Itami: Flash of Pain

Hiyakugama: Leaping Toad


	24. Toshiro Watanabe

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

With astonishing power, Shin extended his leg and blasted the air around it with a thunderous bang! Unfortunately, his target was not there, nor was he even in sight at the moment. Shin was curious as he spun through the air and slid in spirals to a stop after kicking up a wall of dust. Hoji darted his head around as well, searching the street for the unmissable, ugly little man.

"Where'd he go!?" Hoji shouted. On the other side of the buildings, on the other street, Toshiro was standing smugly in the middle of the street, adjusting his belt.

"Neh-heh!" he cackled softly. "Those idiot swordsmen will never catch me!"

"No, but I will" a voice said from above. Toshiro's eyes flew open and he spun around on his heel, catching a glimpse of Suichi sitting on a window ledge before his weight spun his out of control and into the dirt. Suichi looked on with embarrassment and leaped over to street level onto a low fence. Toshiro grunted as he struggled back onto all fours, then he grunted his way back onto his feet. He snarled, curling his lips and squinting his eyes over at Suichi who looked down at the ground.

"You must be frightened" Toshiro taunted, "you don't even have the courage to look me in the eyes!" Toshiro began his devious cackle as Suichi winced to respond.

"It's not that" Suichi started bashfully, "it's just that...you're so damn ugly that looking at you makes me sick..." Suichi started to softly snicker while Toshiro fumed even more, contorting his face to indescribably ugly dimensions. He reached for his sword just in time for Shin and Hoji to come dashing out on either side of him through the alleyways between the streets.

Hoji skidded to a stop and balanced down with his hand, the other holding his sword up high while his tilting head bore a devilish grin. Shin just stood perfectly still while his momentum dropped and pointed his sword up at Toshiro when he stopped. Toshiro darted his head back and forth between the rising demon behind him and the statuesque demon in front, while the nimble assassin crouched effortlessly on another window sill.

"S-so what!?" Toshiro shouted in challenge. "You're all going to gang up on me at once!?"

"Tch." Hoji grunted. "Of course not. We were going to charge you separately so there would be enough meat to carve between the three of us..."

"But if you're giving us the offer to charge at once..." Shin started sadistically, "then we'd be rude not to take it." So Shin, Hoji and Suichi all charged at Toshiro at the same time. The fat man darted his head around fervently many times, trying to decide where to run or what to do, but all in vain as his adversaries began to descend.

First, Suichi came down with his sword pointed down in a piercing move, so Toshiro jumped back. Back, however, was Hoji's forward, and the maniac man was able to encounter him first. Before Toshiro could fully draw out his sword, Hoji delivered a crushing blow with the butt of his sword to Toshiro's back, arching the stout man into a deformed and painful ball and sending him flying down the street towards Shin. The unamused killer took his sword and flexed it back behind his head with the blunt edge forward. Before Toshiro could regain his aerial bearings, Shin hammered him far up into the air with his sword like a bat, then watched as he came crashing back down, breaking through a house's roof.

"Boom!" Hoji announced excitedly.

"Nicely done, men!" Suichi said.

"No fun" Shin grumped. "No fun at all..."

"Oh! Was that it?" Toshiro said from behind the three. They all turned to see him leaning laxly on a blanket and nibbling on a loaf of bread without a spec of damage at all on him. "I thought you guys would go longer, all that bragging you've been doing..." he taunted as he took a mighty bite of his roll.

* * *

"Ah COME ON!" Hoji shouted vehemently. "It doesn't even look like he got hurt at all!"

"Calm down, Hoji" Shin chided, sheathing his sword.

"Tch!?" was Hoji's response.

"It's his sword" Shin briefly explained. Hoji calmed himself down slightly. Toshiro paused from his snacking and glared with one open eye at Shin.

"Really? How do you know?" Hoji asked.

"You couldn't sense it?" Suichi asked. Hoji shook his head.

"He activated his sword when he announced himself to us, remember?" Shin explained. Hoji thought back to a few minutes ago, and realized that he in fact did say the name of his sword as he held it out.

"Well..." Hoji started, "...what's it do?"

"My best guess:" Shin began as he turned back to his opponent, "Time." Toshiro chocked a little bit at Shin's single-worded explanation. "Somehow, he's been going back and forth between points of distance and time simultaneously. We can't see it, or even sense it, as he residual spirit energy gets left behind much like the dust on the road when you flash step. His sword must allow him to leap through time..." Toshiro's jaw was gaping open.

"So that's it" Suichi confirmed. Even if the explanation sounded far-fetched, it seemed more credible coming from Shin.

"Tch. That's confusing as hell" Hoji complained. "Let's just kill him and leave."

"Indeed" Shin concurred. Suichi looked over blankly at his compatriots.

"Really? We just want to kill him now?" he said dryly. Toshiro shot back up and drew out his sword hastily, making a hideous angry face.

"So what if you know how my sword works!" he shouted. "You still can't catch me!" Shin took firm grasp of his sword's handle with one hand and steadied his sheathe with another. The glare form Shin's killing intent was enough to shock Toshiro into a fear-induced paralysis. Then, Shin charged ahead, slowly drawing out his blade while keeping his body steadily low.

"J-" Toshiro stuttered in fear. Shin drew closer. "JUMP, HIYAKUGAMA!" Shin took a powerful slash that ruptured the very air, but missed its target. Shin's periphery vision spied Toshiro reappearing in the other street just as he dashed past an alley and he skidded to a stop. He pointed over to his allies and they followed him over. Toshiro was running awkwardly and rather slowly down the street, struggling for breath when out of nowhere Hoji appeared and stopped himself with both feet and his hand.

"Coil endlessly, Haganerensa!" Suichi called out from above. "Ready! Aim! Rapid FIRE!" The Suichi's coiled arm punched rapidly, and the chain became an extension of his arm that shot down into the street all around Toshiro. Dust kicked up everywhere. Suichi landed down in the street with Chin guarding his back and Hoji just blinked, trying to see through the dust. When the cloud cleared away, Toshiro was unharmed and ready to stab Hoji right through the eyes. Suichi gasped, the audience from their homes gasped, and Shin just smirked.

Hoji leaned back and caught the blade with his teeth. Toshiro was petrified with his smug smile of victory plastered on for effect. Then, with a horrid ripping motion of his neck, Hoji snapped the blade out of its owner's hands and sent int careening into a rooftop. Toshiro was still paralyzed from shock and seemed to be dead, so Hoji just poked him and tipped him on his side. The jolt revived Toshiro, which gave him just enough consciousness to watch as the demonic presence tripled with the looming stares of three destructive monsters bearing down on him. Only a second was to much, and he fainted with foam gushing from his mouth.

"Ew" Suichi said. "I've never seen anyone actually foam at the mouth from fear."

"Surprising," Shin stated, "as you do it all the time."

"EH!?" Suichi replied back in shock. "Well, that's your fault" he argued calmly.

"Tch! Yeah right, you wimp!" Hoji protested. The pointless fight was observed by the inhabitants of the village, who all started sheepishly coming out of their homes. The three stopped arguing long enough to figure out how surrounded by onlookers they were. They all stood in cautious silence at their heroes as their heroes looked around curiously.

"...what?" Shin asked.

* * *

"To celebrate our miraculous saviors," the town elder declared over the ruckus, "we have held this fantastic feast!" The town cheered from their sheltered hall as they all gazed longingly at the three warriors already eating the plenteous food. Toshiro was tied up in the back ,watching as the food was being made and taunted periodically by the chefs.

"I knew you were holding out on me!" Toshiro shouted to the cooks as they roasted and basted. "Everytime I came here you always said 'this is all we have' or 'the crops aren't in this year...' BULLCRAP!"

"Cram it, ugly!" on cook yelled before kicking Toshiro in the gut.

"In addition to the feast," the elder continued, "our heroes have requested an audience with our local guard regarding the Kyuuhiouto, as they are questing to rid the country of them once and for all!" Thunderous applause, cheering and praise rang out that echoed over the valley walls and into the sky. Shin glanced around cautiously, then set his eyes forward at the gathered guard.

"Thanks for the food" Hoji said, biting down furiously on his current flank of meat.

"Please, do not thank us" the head guard started. "You're the ones whom we're thanking today."

"Are the Kyuuhiouto really all that?" Shin asked, taking a sip of water.

"They are indeed" the head guard started gravely. "The Kyuuhiouto is basically a gang that acts like one of the major houses that otherwise rules over the country. Their main goal, so far as we know, is to wait for the war to weaken the outer provinces enough that they can take them all over and control the borders of the entire region, setting themselves up as a dominant power in the government."

"That's pretty bad" Suichi said while his compatriots stared on blankly with deep apathy. "How're they going about this, though? Just intimidating the villagers in the outlying perimeters of the region isn't directly effecting the government's control, is it?"

"...more than you'd think" the elder said from behind them. "Who do you think manages the import-export now?" he said. Suichi took a serious gaze into space, letting all the major pieces of the puzzle topple over into place...while Shin and Hoji were fighting with chopsticks over the last piece of meat.


	25. Climbing the Mountains

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"So" Hoji said grumpily, "where to now?"

"For the umpteenth time" Shin replied angrily "we're going to a town called 'Burgo'"

"What the hell!?" Hoji yelled. "What weird-ass kind of name is that?"

"I think it means 'meadow' in some weird language" Suichi clarified.

"Tch. Who cares?" Hoji complained. "All these places have weird-ass names. Riev, and Burgo, and...what was that first one?"

"Wasn't it 'Gam?'" Shin replied.

"Gam's not a word! Backwards weird-o's..." Hoji growled. Suichi put his finger to his chin and thought for a moment.

"You know" he started, "I think they have a different name for their shinigami here, too. They call them 'Soul Reapers' or some such crap."

"I hate this country" Hoji growled even deeper. Shin smirked to himself as he and his group walked down the path to the next town across the mountains. Up the craggy steep sides of and across the jagged peaks they went, always leaping and bounding straight into the setting sun. Suichi's eyes could barely take it. Eventually, their tireless searching came to fruition, and the place they long sought was found. After a near straight week of running through the exhausting, foodless mountains, the shinigami found the hermitage they were seeking.

"Is that the right place? Suichi asked between his panting. Shin walked over and pulled out the scroll the counsel of Riev gave them and held it up. The symbol on the roof of the place matched the symbol drawn in the scroll. It was indeed the place.

"It might be" Shin said, giving the decision no more commitment and walking forward.

"We need a better answer than that!" Suichi yelled. Hoji followed after with his arms crossed.

"No we don't" Hoji explained to the still exhausted Suichi. The poor tired man looked at the two monsters as they walked on as if they walked across the street to get there. The huge building atop a short flight of wide stairs was regardlessly a welcome sight for Suichi, who was nowhere near as berserkly tough as his companions.

"Wait up!" he yelled, stumbling after them up the steps.

"Yo!" Shin shouted before kicking open the door. "Anybody home!?" No answer. To Shin's dismay, the temple looked abandoned. The coals in the fire were just barely red. "Maybe they went for a walk.

"OI!" Hoji screamed, kicking the other door off its hinges and across the room next to the offering alter. "COME OUT, DAMMIT!!"

"Be less subtle" Shin chided. Suichi finally arrived and took a subjective glance around.

"Looks like they evacuated for some reason..." Suichi said, responding to the desolate air, the overturned furniture, the still-fresh food on the alter and the embers in the fireplace.

"Well, we kicked in the door" Hoji said to clarify.

"I know!" Suichi said angrily. He started walking around to assess the damage a little better, getting a feel for the scene. For his occupation, Suichi had caused more than enough murder and panic scenes to know what could happen where, but his deductive eye wasn't picking up anything suspicious. His ears picked up on Hoji scarfing down the food on the alter, but that was about it. Shin went in the opposite direction as Suichi and ended up in what seemed to be the monk's quarters. Each room was about the size of a prison cell, if not smaller, and had nothing in it but a blanket and a statue of whatever god these people were worshiping.

"Looks cozy" Shin said. His fighting instincts picked up on and unusual creaking from the adjacent hallway. He moved his hand up to the hilt of his sword and gripped it slowly. When he turned, he saw nothing at the end of the hall. Regardless, the creeping chill didn't settle, and he slowly paced down the hall, looking into each identical room with a vicious furrowed glare. Back in the main hall, Hoji was tilting his head to try and figure out the cryptic statue these people worshiped so much. It looked like a very poorly made, curvy palm with abnormally straight fingers that ended in points like claws.

"Even their art is ass-backwards" Hoji said. His instinctual chill perked up, so he swung around with his sword drawn and ready to pounce. There was nothing. He glanced around with his sword still ready, but decided against unnecessary force in a holy house, stowing his sword back in its sheathe.

"Where does this food come from?" Suichi asked himself, analytically observing the fresh inventory in the back that was full of food and other essentials, like water and obviously spiritual alcohol. Unfortunately for Suichi, being the combatively less aware than his two counterparts, only sensed the danger as it swung down upon his, landing with a thwack.

* * *

"You find anything?" Hoji asked the overly-cautious Shin.

"Nah" Shin said, removing his hand form his blade. A moment of silence passed in the absence of a third input.

"Did you sense something?" Hoji asked.

"Someone" Shin confirmed. They both flashed back and ran down the hall where Suichi had gone, but found nothing. The only open room was vacant of life but plentiful in food. Hoji ignored the obvious danger and charged ahead for the food. "..." Shin didn't intervene, as the prospect of watching Hoji get dragged away from his own stupidity was more amusing to Shin than the concern of where Suichi had gone.

"Dude, there's so much food in here!" Hoji yelled. In the corner, hugging the wall of the pantry, was a cloaked figure wielding some unseen instrument, and an unconscious Suichi. Shin's imminent sense of danger overrode his brain and body for a moment when the shadow of death came looming out, so he unconsciously drew his sword and charged forward. Just as Hoji prepared to take a firm bite down on a piece of juicy, red meat, his danger sense went berserk. He turned in a flash to see a blur of brown come down on him. He struggled to shuffle back and pull out his sword in time, but only made it to point at his assailant's neck because Shin came in time to hold back the man's club with his foot.

"Nice dodge" Shin said sarcastically.

"Tch!" Hoji grunted in shock. "Who-who is this freak!?"

"Moreover," Shin started, sheathing his sword slowly, "where are you pointing? His neck's up here."

"No it's not!" Hoji said. He poked his sword into the cloak and pushed down the stick that was adding, if not doubling, the height of the hip-high old man who stood in surprise and blinked his huge eyes. Shin released the club from his foot's clutch and stood back on both his feet. The old man looked around him, noticed he was surrounded and withdrew the club behind him, pretending it wasn't there.

"Well, what brings you young'ns up to these mountains?" he asked kindly.

"BULL!" Hoji shouted, throwing a fistful of rice at his face.

* * *

After waking Suichi with the stinging, smelly alcohol, the three situated in the main hall before the odd old man who took a seat of honor directly under the statue. He was a strange, almost inhuman looking old man, though that didn't say much for an inhuman realm of existence. His face was wrinkled to the point where it didn't look like a face but more like a series of sags with eyes and a mouth plugged on for kicks. His whiskers were so thing and white that it looked like spider-webs dangling from his crinkled lip more than hair. His head was covered with visible, thin veins and a nearly white spot where gravity seemed to push down on his skin too much.

"So" the old man said, extending his disproportionately long, bony arms into a meditation pose, "what brings you warriors here?" Shin looked at his two compatriots, then answered on their behalf.

"We seek to obliterate the Kyuuhiouto and fill the valleys they have stolen from with their own blood." Suichi almost did a spit-take halfway through the explanation, but Hoji just nodded. The old man didn't look very moved by Shin's brashness at all. He even smiled...maybe. The wrinkles made it hard for anyone to tell what he was doing.

"So, you are here to rest before a fight?" the old man asked, slowly moving his arms and putting his hands together to pray.

"Not really" Hoji started, nodding his lead off from Shin. "We were sent here by the elder from Riev. He said you could help us learn more about the Kyuuhiouto before we fight them." The old man now parted his hands and made a large circle with his palms in the air, then brought them together again as if he was holding something in them. The group each furrowed their brows curiously.

"We don't need to know much" Shin said, desperate to keep the man's attention. "We just want to know where the closest one is." The old man opened his eyes part way, leaving his lids to show only the black of his large pupils. He saw the desperation in Shin's face, and his arms began to shake.

"Why do you want to kill them?" the old man asked. Before Shin could answer, or even think of an answer, a light started shining from the man's hands. A sphere of light started generating from seemingly nowhere. Suichi backed away, but Shin slowly stood up, getting ready to dodge or deflect or whatever he would have to do with this mysterious new force he was seeing. "...do you want to learn?" the old man asked with an evil grin. Shin's eyes shot open a moment too late.

"**Hash-ra!"** The orb shot out as a colossal, invisible wave of energy that splintered the wood and sent Shin flying out the door and down the steps, landing had against the ground far outside the temple walls. Hoji looked on after Shin, then drew his sword and started to rush forward.

"You ASS--" but he was cut off by another blast of energy. Hoji's head banged against the top of the doorway on the way out, knocking him out temporarily as he rolled to a stop with sword still clutched in hand. The old man summoned his club up from the floor and flashed ahead to the temple steps where Shin was viciously glaring up at him.

"In your current state," the old man shouted, leaning up against his club placed on the step below, "the leaders of the Kyuuhiouto would tear you apart!" Shin growled at these words. Hoji growled too, but from the bump he felt on the back of his head and the wet redness that was on his fingers from it. "Do you want to know the name of your weapon, **Shin Kenpachi!?**" Shin's eyes shot open again. His name, and his sword's name...this man knew them both?

* * *

Hash-ra: doesn't mean anything. It's the name of the technique the old man used, but it doesn't mean anything.


	26. Questions, Questions

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"...What?" Shin asked, staring in disbelief up the steps to the mysterious old man that claimed to know everything he wanted to know. "You're saying..." Shin's mind was clouded with thoughts. He looked down at his sword, still comfy in its sheathe and thought back to that fever dream he had. The one with the skeleton.

"Can't believe it, eh?" The old man gloated. "Well, you better believe it! I'm a far-known seer who has the ability to read the minds of shinigami and their zanpakuto alike!" Shin kept staring, while Hoji shakily stood to his feet and glared wide-eyed up at the buggy old man. "And you, Hoji Araijin. Do you want to know the secret to your sword as well?"

"HELL NO!!" Hoji shouted, blindly charging forward again. The old man let him get to the lowest step before he decided to throw out another half-powered wave. Hoji swung his sword as hard as he could but still got pushed back to Shin's feet on his back with his feet dangling haplessly over his face.

"Ha ha" the old man laughed triumphantly. "You underestimate me, child! I have a millennium of spiritual training, whereas you two have nothing!" Regardless, Hoji sprung back up and tried to charge again, holding his sword in two hands at his side. Suichi regained consciousness from the first blast in time to feel the rush of wind from the old man firing yet another. He watched Hoji fly back through the air and recover as Shin stood perplexed on his own sword.

"Answer me, Shin Kenpachi!" the old man shouted, drawing up his club like a sheathed sword. "I can tell you what you want to know!" Suichi decided to try and sneak up from behind, but the old man was craftier than that. He took his club and thrust it back into Suichi's gut, knocking the wind from him. With the club's end still on Suichi's stomach, the old man twirled it forward and Suichi went flying down to the ground.

"Oi, Shin!" Hoji shouted right next to him. "Come on, this guy;s mocking us!"

"...Hoji..." Shin said. Hoji perked up and tried to listen. "...is he telling the truth?"

"You're damn right I am!" the old man shouted in response.

"Are we really that weak still?" Shin asked, raising his head up mournfully. The old man's victorious smiled slowly faded into an awkward, wrinkled look of curiosity as Shin spoke. "All of our training and all of our work, it's all been wasted up until now? If we can't achieve a higher level of power on our own, than why try at all. But if we can't achieve it period..." Shin sadly trailed off into silence. The old man took his club-staff and leaned on it. "...old man!" Shin shouted.

"Eh?" The old man grunted to affirm his attention.

"If you really know everything that we want to know..." Shin started. Hoji wanted to lop off his head to keep his mouth from asking the question that would negate their entire existences, but figured that Shin would out-sword him and just covered his ears. The old man, meanwhile, was looking more prosperously curious. "...can you tell us where Hollows come from?" Suichi had stayed conscious long enough to understand how stupid a question that probably was while Hoji was sqeezing his head blue. The old man chuckled softly and looked down in defeat.

"You're quite adamant in your desires" he admitted, "Shin Kenpachi. Very well, pull up a seat." Shin looked around and uprooted a tree stump. Hoji released his ears and followed after Shin, grabbing a rock.

"What's happening?" Hoji asked as he sat next to Shin.

"Shut up and I'll start!" the old man yelled. Suichi crawled over on his belly and settled himself down in a lizard pose. "And for the purpose of simplicity, call me Inaga rather than 'old man' if you have a question."

"No problem, old man Inaga" Hoji affirmed. Inaga took a very angry stare before he sighed heavily.

* * *

"From what I understand" Inaga started, "there are two major beings in the afterlife. There are we shinigami, the deceased from the human world who have received a proper spiritual burial via another shinigami, and of course there are the Hollows. In our dimension, we see Hollows ever so often hunting for souls to devour, as they exist on souls. We shinigami have kept our human side of our souls, but the Hollows abandoned their humanity and became animals when they died. That is why we two beings cannot appropriately co-exist in the same world."

"But where do they come from?" Shin interrupted.

"No one quite knows" Inaga said. "Even the foremost authority on the Hollows herself sometimes questions their origin. We know that when a humans soul is particularly dark and evil, they will eventually become a Hollow filled with anger and regret. Some souls that linger too long in between the living and unliving worlds rot away, and they too become Hollows. I only know that the process is gradual and only the shinigami can properly save a soul with the pummels of our souls and send them here. Much like you were saved, Shin Kenpachi." Shin kept staring ahead to listen, but Hoji recoiled in surprise.

"You weren't born here?" Hoji exclaimed. Shin didn't care, so he edged Inaga on.

"So where do these corrupt souls go?" Shin asked. Inaga sighed and sat down at the top step.

"Like I said," he started again, "no one is sure. Everyone has their own strange story and few of them seem to be related. Besides, this isn't a question for me. There's a researcher in this country that could definitely tell you more about Hollows than I can. Go find her."

"What's her name?" Shin asked.

"Rei" Suichi moaned as he sat up. "**Rei Unohana**.I've been approached with contracts to kill her from the major voices of the churches in this region. They don't like the work she's doing in researching 'demons' or so they believe."

"That's right" Inaga said, nodding. Shin sat up, brushed off his pants and pulled up his belt.

"One last thing" Shin said. Inaga looked to listen. "You said that in my current state, I can't defeat the Kyuuhiouto. Suppose I can achieve my higher state of power. What would happen then?" Inaga chuckled at Shin's remark. Hoji got up and got ready to hurt the withered old freak for laughing at his friend when Inaga spoke.

"Shin Kenpachi, yours is a power that my very well end the world as we know it." That was a shock. All six eyes from the trio darted over at the space where the old man used to be. "As for the 'then'" Inaga continued atop a tree, "I'm sure that you'll reach that level soon enough, young man." Shin looked up with his blank seriousness, staring down the happy old warrior. Then, with a sudden smile, Shin started setting off. Hoji followed, scooping Suichi up over his shoulder as the three walked down a beaten path through the mountains.

"When was this road here?" Hoji questioned. Inaga watched as those two ambitious young swordsmen set off with the beaten assassin in tow and he smiled.

"It's a long road" Inaga said poetically. "You can't see its end or its turns from where you are, but know that it is long." He vanished and the temple doors shut with a clap of metal thunder.

* * *

Meanwhile, while Shin and Hoji hopped and skipped along with their lively trustee Suichi, a man was walking into a wilderness fortress. These forts, established by those who wish to forgo the solidarity of the shinigami's code of conduct in the cities, are few and far between. This one is the infamous 'BloodBane' encampment, where the worst kinds of bandits and thieves gather to group and establish a base for their raids in the nearby cities. It is of course made all the more infamous for its treacherous surroundings, bordered by the mountains to the north, a sea to the east, heavily guarded and dense forest from the west and the narrow, horrific strip of the Blood Plains to the south. From the south, a tired figure staggered onwards.

"Hey!" one lookout shouted down to the guards below. "Something's coming in from the south!"

"Is it a Hollow?" a guard shouted back. The lookout took up his telescope and looked again seeing the tattered robes, long wet hair and more importantly the sword of a shinigami, all of which were glistening with the dank and dark blood of the Hollows.

"It's a stick!" the lookout shouted. The guards picked up their swords and rushed out. They met the man mid-way and offered their arms in help.

"Hey guy! Are you crazy!?" the guard said to the still marching man. "You sticks must have some weird crack in your skulls that makes you go out and try to kill all them Hollows."

"You didn't go after Alpha, did you?" the other guard asked. It was all in vain to try to reconcile with this man. The lookout watched in horror as the two guards, men he knew, were sliced down in a flash. The murderer was already inside the city, having flash stepped through the door the guards left open.

"RAID!" the lookout shouted. It was the last thing he shouted, his bones all crushed under the wave of pin-point pressure delivered by the mystery man. Suddenly, and army of various weapon wielding bandits came from nowhere and circled their assailant.

"Who are you!" the man with the sharpest looking sword yelled. Very slowly, Netami raised up his head and glared out of his orange-filled eyes with a paralyzing hate.

"I'm nothin" Netami said, raising up his released sword that blended with the dark light of the valley. "The nothing that swallows everything it sees." One swipe, and everything faded to black... "I'll find you Suichi" his voice echoed through the darkness he created. "I'll find you, and I'll kill you..." The BloodBane fortress had vanished the next morning, a barren spot of dead woodland in its place. No one ever found out why...


	27. Shigu Wrobackental

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

An old farmer was walking alongside his ox-driven cart full of fresh vegetables when he saw them. From the highlands came three curious strangers. His curiosity came from the way the walked, and the way two of them didn't walk. It was Shin's new training method to prepare he and his comrades for the fight ahead of them against the Kyuuhiouto officers. One walks with his arms extended out straight while the other two stand on his arms and alternate between upside-down push-ups and weightless squats. The strangeness of this impossible looking exercise prompted the old man to run back to his home past the warriors who didn't notice him. Hoji was currently carrying his friends on his arms.

"Is there a town ahead?" Hoji asked with strain. Suichi stopped his push-ups and settled cross-legged on his perch.

"It should be" he said panting.

"It is" Shin said, seeing the smoke rising up from the furnaces that a town would most certainly have.

"Good" Hoji grunted. "The sooner I get food, the longer I can keep...this..." He fell into the dirt but let his arms hover shakily above the ground.

"Oi, Hoji" Shin complained upside-down, "don't shake so much. It's hard to balance like that."

"Sorry" Hoji mumbled, muffled by the dirt. He did his best to raise himself up onto his feet with two men on his arms. He didn't make it far, and fell completely on his face.

"I guess it's your turn, Suichi" Shin said, hopping down onto the road.

"Wait a sec" Suichi begged. "I don't think I can--" It didn't matter Shin jumped up and Suichi caught him on his arm. Only a second in and he couldn't take it anymore, falling to his good knee. "Fine, then" he grunted out. Shin didn't do anymore squats out of kindness to his weaker counterpart. Hoji was crawling along after them in the dust as they crested the hill, their destination in sight. Burgo, a dainty little Hamlet situated between the rolling plains that led to the mountains and a carved forest path that led to the city.

"Good" Shin said. "It looks like there's plenty of turmoil down there, too."

"What makes you say that?" Suichi painfully asked. He shook a little when Hoji grabbed onto his leg.

"The air" Hoji said weakly. "It's all...heavy." Suichi raised a brow to the testimonies being given, because he couldn't safely move anything else without falling backwards. Then, he felt it. Upon approaching the outermost marks of the town's road, a pressure started building. A spiritual pressure. Suichi was forced down to his hands and knees while he produced a counter-balance to the presure around him.

"Training's over" Shin declared, marching forward with no problem at all. "Let's go." Even Hoji was able to stand up, much to Suichi's surprise.

_That's amazing_ Suichi thought as he stomped after them. _I can barely keep my pressure up against this force, but these guys barely notice it._ As they walked into town they were greeted with a familiar feeling of alienation and terror. What people were in the streets quickly darted into nearby buildings, hid behind what they could find and sprinted out of view. _This pressure field must have been up for quite a while. All these normal people are already so used to it._

"Huh" Shin grunted. "The pressure's coming from the town square. Weird." Shin said that like he had said it before, like this kind of bizarre force wasn't out of the ordinary. Hoji was even walking like nothing was wrong. Being wanted bandits for resisting imperial arrest as long as they have been, Suichi brushed his curiosity off that this was normal for them. As the pack rounded the corner led by Shin, they stopped at an abnormal sight. In the center of town was a wide circle of citizens sitting in meditation positions, facing away from a tent. From within the tent, there was almost no pressure, but there were many moving shadows. Shin glared over at the tent and decided for himself.

"They're in there" he said. "Let's go."

"Wait," Suichi pleaded, "are you sure?"

* * *

"Hey, Ugly!" a boisterous young man shouted across the tent to an attractive young woman. "More sake! NOW!" The woman winced, poured the drink and rushed it over, delivering it on her knees with her head down. The man was quick to guzzle the drink down and slam to cup onto the floor just in front of the scared woman.

"Get out of here!" he shouted. This young man with the shaved head and spiky red goatee was **Shigu Wrobackental**, a native 'Soul Reaper' of this land. "Ah, that was good."

"You're disgusting" a woman's voice said from a dark corner of the tent. Shigu looked over with his head low and face angry.

"Yeah? Well you're a bitch" he retorted under his breath.

"What!?" the woman snapped. This woman, with her black hair in a bun and narrow eyes behind glasses held by a straw band around her head, was **Ryoko Usamari**, one of the Kyuuhiouto from the neighboring region of shinigami. Shigu hung his head down in shame and turned not to face her.

"Nothing...ma'am..." he mumbled. Ryoko huffed and went back to her book on bounty hunters. Suddenly, the air became disturbed. The pressure wall erected outside the tent had been dissolved.

"What happened?" she demanded. The women in the tent went running out without anything to fear anymore to stop their escape.

"Hey!" Shigu shouted. "My bitches are getting away!" Ryoko took her sword in its sheathe and hammered Shigu on the head with it. The force was enough to force him off balance and he slipped to the floor.

"Concern yourself more with the wall!" She ordered. Shigu rubbed his bruised head and ran outside, where he was met with an unwelcome sight.

"Tch." Hoji grunted with his sword drawn in his slacked wrist. "That wasn't interesting."

"I thought it was funny" Shin said. "You just drew your sword and they all ran."

"It was" Suichi said between panting breaths, "kind of funny. Huh?" Now, the assassin took notice of the strange looking young man in shinigami garb, scowling and jutting out his jaw wildly.

"Hey, hey, hey now!" Shigu shouted. "What's up with this crap? You jackasses scared away my flock of birds!"

There was a brief, but blank, silence from the three intruders.

"Enh?" Hoji insistingly grunted in question.

"Birds, you know" Shigu started, sleazily. "With legs for struttin' and an ass for shakin'. Chicks. Bitches. Hot girls!" His breath seemed to be wasted, as were his emotive stroking and squeezing motions. The invading swordsmen just kept staring at him, this time with embarrassed looks.

"I feel...uncomfortable around this guy" Shin said, quivering his mouth with disgust.

"He's a pervert" Suichi said.

"That was just," Hoji started in disbelief, "wrong. So wrong to say..."

"What's wrong with you guys?" Shigu insisted. "Don't you like women?"

"Strong ones, yeah" Shin said. "And then, only if they can fight."

"I don't mind 'em" Hoji added. "I like anyone that can fight, I guess."

_These guys are weird..._ Shigu stated internally.

* * *

"Underling!" Ryoko shouted as she emerged from the tent, sword drawn and ready in hand. "Who are these people?"

"Uh..." Shigu wanted to stall, since he didn't get any names out of these guys yet.

"I'm Shin Kenpachi" Shin announced, "and I hope you have some good news about the Kyuuhiouto."

"...I'm the head of the Spiritual Research department for the Kyuuhiouto" Ryoko said with distrust. Shin drew out his sword and held it in front of his face, the deadly edge staring down Ryoko. Ryoko looked wide-eyed at the man threatening her silently, steadying her own sword in preparation for him to charge her.

"I take it you know about me?" Shin asked, faking a modest tone. Ryoko didn't nod, she just held her sword in a strange way. Shin could see the energies of her and her sword start to mix and converge. She held it straight up, handle parallel to her face and hands gripped tightly. She raised her sword up slowly, the rocks and debris nearby picking up as she prepared her shikai.

"_Press forward and destroy, **Shirushienko!**"_ With a hard swing down, the sword transformed. No longer just a standard, nameless katana, the sword had lengthened and broadened. From the hand guard extended an elegant, tribal series of strange runic symbols that were symetric in design. Some of them weren't even connected, at least not well, to the rest of the structure, but they still floated in mid-air uniformly following like a solid metal construct. She kept her blade down, facing slightly forward with her feet shoulder-length apart. Her icy gaze shone through her glasses at the smiling Shin Kenpachi, who started drawing his blade in a slow circle. With a whip of air, he slashed down his sword to face it at her.

"Interesting" Shin said. "What do those marks mean?" His honest question prompted no answer from his opponent. She dashed forward, making a huge sweep at Shin, who tilted his sword down in time to intercept and block the massive clash. His blade didn't touch the prominent, black marks in the air, it just stopped before them. "Above that, the blade is invisible!" Shin remarked. Ryoko was shocked that he discovered her sword's secret so quickly, and her shock gave way to anger as Shin kicked her across the town square and flashed after her. While still in mid-tumble, Shin made a wicked, dropping stab for her which she blocked with her sword that was wider than her body.

"Good timing" Shin praised, caught up in the heat of battle. He powered his stab and jumped off of her blade and went into the air. Ryoko kicked herself up and adjusted her glasses with one hand, her other holding the sword up effortlessly. "_**Binshoraiko**_" she shouted. Her hand flew up and shot out a bright streak of white split through the sky. Hoji stared up at it, hoping that Shin managed to dodge or deflect it in time. To his dismay, he heard a crash across the town.

"Shin!" Hoji shouted in concern. He went to dash off, but his way was blocked by the assertive young man's sword. "Tch" he angrily grunted.

"Woah, man, slow down" Shigu said. "I ain't letting you get away!" Shigu made a wild, unaimed swing at Hoji, who hopped away and over to Suichi who was leaning against a wall.

"I'll fight him!" Suichi demanded. He was cut off from saying anything else by Hoji's upper robe getting tossed onto his face. The shirtless Hoji crouched down and took his sword's handle into his mouth, letting his hands stabilize his upper body while his legs were spread out and weighted on his toes. Suichi pulled off the smelly, sweaty robe in time to gag and look on quizzically.

"Trust me, Suichi" Hoji said effortlessly, despite the sword in his mouth. "I'll let you know when we need an assassin, but until then Shin and I are warriors. We fight like we're about to die **all the time!!**" Hoji's steely resolve and crazed accusation gave Shigu an uneasy sense of dread. Even Suichi hesitated before he was sure about his comrade's survivability, but he nodded and jumped away to the roof of a nearby house to watch.

_These men_ Suichi thought to himself, _are mad!_ In another block, Shin was emerging form the ruined hole he made in a house when he blocked the streak of lightning.

"That was strong" he commented. "Insanely strong! She's dangerous."

"_Binsho..."_ Shin heard in the distance. He knew now to move out of the way, so he did and let her say the remainder of her spell and level the house in a single blast.

"Close range" Shin said, readying his sword to fight in both hands. "That's where I can win. Okay..." His eyes closed and he could see His opponent coming up over the nearby houses with her sword ready to cleav down powerfully on top of him. He took his sword, held it tight, and raised it above his head to block.

"Die, Monster!" Ryoko shouted, jumping down from the roof and pressing Shin down. The force from her sword coupled with Shin's unmoving stature created a shattered crater around him. Ryoko was scared. Shin looked up through his darkened brow with a smile of great malice at her.

"I'm a monster am I?" Shin asked, lowering his sword. "Then I shall fight you like a MONSTER!" He swung upwards, very hard, sending Ryoko into a blurry spin through the air and into the smoking pile of broken housing she created with her lightning. Shin took a pause to push his hair back and let it spring back forward as his hand passed over it. "This will be a great fight, I'm sure..." Ryoko pushed her way out of the rubble and staggered back into a fighting pose, just in time to see Shin dashing forward with his sword in a ready-to-slice position.

* * *

Shirushienko: Symbolic Flame.

Binshoraiko: Quick Lightning


	28. They're like Monsters

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

With the force that can stop the world from spinning, cracking the steely sound that breaks the clouds in the sky, Shin's sword connected to Ryoko's in a violent way. His swing was so precise and wide, all the rubble was blown away in the resulting blast of wind. A few seconds later and he still hung sideways in the air until he crouched down onto her sword and pushed off, knocking her to the ground at last. Shin stood in the street, a sadistic shadow on his face that let his emotionless eyes shine through while his opponent threw herself up and ditched her broken glasses.

"You're..." she started with heavy breath, "no ordinary swordsman, are you?" Shin smirked under his dark cover and tilted his head to make his mouth seem straighter.

"Who knows?" he said, tilting his head in a full circle. "I'm a monster, remember?" He dashed ahead again, sweeping the barely prepared Ryoko down the adjacent street and into another building by tapping swords with the force he made. He could feel the blood in his muscles burning his skin from his over-powered swings, so he switched hands. Ryoko took a bit more time to recover from such a shocking blow, but she did.

"He's strong" she reminded herself, readying for another terrible burst of power. Shin started running with his sword off to the side in his left hand. "I'll have to even things out if I want to survive..." She closed her eyes, missing Shin jump up and nearly teleport over to her. He was about to swing when the pressure started to impressively climb in the area immediately around her. He was dropped to his feet, shoulders down but sword still up. "There" She uttered confidently. "Now you should-" he swung. It wasn't with as much insane power, but it did nick off some of her hair. Shin's feet sank through the wood of the broken walls and into the stone street as he stepped forward, swinging. Ryoko was able to block now without getting thrown around, but it was still taxing to keep up with this kind of strength.

* * *

"That's amazing" Suichi awed from the rooftop. He watched Shin fighting in a visibly dense area of spirit energy. Hoji, of course, was still toying around by dashing around on all fours with his sword still in his mouth.

"CAM AN!!" Hoji slurred ravenously, making another predatory dash forward. Shigu sidestepped out of the way, stepping in the direction opposite where Hoji's sword pointed, but Hoji just clawed at the ground and spun around, making Shigu have to leap back into a cart and lose his footing from the blade spinning at him. Hoji stopped himself on all fours, then started to get up on his legs again. As Shigu rubbed his head, Hoji spat out his sword back into his hand.

"Alright," Hoji started, "enough of that. It's killing time." Shigu became shocked at the degree of casualness Hoji addressed the term 'killing time' and shot up.

"Don't joke around anymore, dammit!" Shigu shouted. Hoji glared over at him. "Just because you think you're hot, doesn't mean you is."

"Dude," Hoji started, "you need to back to school."

"I'm a top swordsman around here for a reason, son" Shigu started again, using his uneducated sounding dialect. "And I'mma show you that reason right nah"

"Okay" Hoji said, gripping the skin between his eyes. "You just massacred that sentence, so I believe you're a killer to some degree. However," and now Hoji posed his sword by standing perfectly straight, tilting his head up for maximum effect, and pointing it right between Shigu's eyes, "I'm still a much better swordsman than you are."

"Yeah?" Shigu asked, readying his sword, "how do you figure?"

"Because" Hoji started, keeping his killer facade until the last second, "I'm a _real_ shinigami and you're just a cheap knockoff!" His face grew an awkward smile when he said that and his inflection on shinigami made him seem like he was talking to a child.

"I'mma MESS YOU UP, son!" Shigu shouted again. "Let's end this! Prick through the bone, _**WESPNAALD!**_" The sword transformed into a thin estoc with a guard that had two finger-sized holes just below where the blade started. Shigu put his index and middle fingers through the holes and slashed his blade which made a curious, sharp 'zing' sound.

"Wespnaald?" Hoji questioned. "What the hell does that even mean? Is that even the right language?" Hoji started laughing, putting his free hand on his forehead to keep his head from falling completely over. Shigu watched him with growing animosity.

"What are you laughing at!?" Shigu shouted. "Well, let's see your sword then?" Hoji's laughter died down, but the joviality from it didn't.

"I don't really know my sword's name yet" Hoji admitted, wiping his eyes. "That doesn't mean I can't kill you."

"Psh" Shigu scoffed. "Yeah it does."

"Tch." Hoji snarled. "You want to see me fight? Alright!" All at once, Hoji vanished. A few black lines replaced him for a half-second, but they vanished too. Shigu couldn't track his movements because from what he saw there were none. Then, a powerful flying kick to the head sent Shigu tumbling into a stone wall. "If you can't even see me like that, how can you win?" Shigu growled and got up. He extended his arm and aimed at Hoji. Then he ran forward, arm behind him and ready to sweep, with Hoji running the same way. They swung at the same time, but Hoji's sword was knocked a little farther away than Shigu's was. The blades stayed connected, but it still gave Hoji reason to scowl.

Hoji decided to draw back and swing again, as did Shigu. Each swing they took, their blades hit and Hoji's was always the one that edged off even the slightest bit. With the anger working inside him, Hoji increased the speed of his furious swings and stabs. Shigu matched him hit per hit, hitting away stabs and otherwise deflecting his power cuts. Hoji wasn't using his off hand, though, he just let it dangle at his side. Shigu's was palm-up behind him. Soon the blades just looked like flashes of light that went off rapidly between the two men, their swords traveling faster than either one could see.

"Not bad" Hoji said, not letting his voice drift off and give away that he was in trouble. "If you had some muscles under all that pale skin I might try a bit." Shigu fell for the feint and got angry. He pushed Hoji away and started rushing him with wide, drawn back swings that came much slower that his quick flurry of stabs and cuts. Hoji had the better hand in this fight now, as he easily hopped and strafed away from his furious opponent who kept swinging wildly and following through on every stroke.

_And now that he's good and distracted by anger_ Hoji planned, gathering energy in his hand, _I've got him_.

"Senkou no..." Hoji started. Shigu backed off and jumped over Hoji, landing behind him just outside of his range. Hoji spun around quickly and finished his spell, "SHIKYO!", firing a blast of red lightning just past Shigu and through the house that Suichi was on top. His concentrated blast only made a hole through the walls instead of capsizing the entire structure. There was a brief pause while Hoji gathered if he had killed anyone uninvolved by peering through the hole and Shigu trying to snap his spine back into alignment from dodging at the last second.

* * *

"SUICHI!" Hoji shouted. "Did I kill anyone accidentally?" Suichi flashed down to the street and checked. There was a scared family huddled in the corner, but they were all alive and the lightning curved up and skimmed another house's roof before it dissipated in the distance.

"No" Suichi reported, "you're good." Hoji nodded. He heard Shigu hit the ground with a crack and looked down to make sure he didn't accidentally kill himself somehow. He was fine, but still in shock, so Hoji stomped on his chest and pointed his sword at his throat.

"You fail" Hoji lowed, keeping his eyes up and glowing white. Shigu refused his defeat and bashed Hoji's leg away with his arm, then rolled up. His feet just settled on his weight again and Hoji was already there, sword at throat, eyes white and head tilted down.

"No, guy" Shigu started, moving his free hand slowly to grasp his armed forearm, "_you_ fail." with the strength of both his arms, he swung straight up, sending Hoji's sword pointing to the sky and leaving him open. Everything slowed down as Hoji's inner warrior clicked into the battle. He watched Shigu start to take a step in to thrust, so he let the inertia carry his arm in a full circle. Hoji flipped over the sword and settled gracefully on its tip. Time resumed with Hoji pointing now between Shigu's eyes, keeping his arm drawn slightly back so his sword was just barely against his skin.

"No, you do" Hoji shot back. Everything seemed over now, until Shin and Ryoko came crashing through a nearby house, sending a wave of crushing energy at the other two fighters. Shigu was struck with it full force and fell backwards, but Hoji raised his arms up to his face to block and got away without being blasted away. Instead, he flashed back a distance and looked into moving cloud of dust. There stood Shin, sword pointed and back arched at Ryoko, who had lost her outer robe and was wearing a scorch-marked and dirty white top with her broadsword aimed and ready to sweep again.

"Oi!" Shin shouted, not moving anything but his mouth. "You good over here?" Hoji assumed the question was his and responded.

"Yeah, pretty much" was his answer. He could have been more honest, but to admit struggle against someone so weak compared to what Shin was dealing with seemed arrogant.

Shigu was stunned and stuck to the ground from the massive spiritual force the two shinigami were emitting. He couldn't bring himself to raise his arm, let alone his whole body. "Ryoko, ma'am" he strained out. Ryoko didn't let her eyes leave Shin's. "I can't...move..." Ryoko sighed.

"Let's relocate" Ryoko suggested. As soon as she did, Shin assisted her with a flash-step speed knee to the face. While still in mid air, Shin spun around, as if he kicked off of the air, and dashed over the ground across the square, skidding and hopping to make the sharp turn into the street where Ryoko had flown. Hoji saw him leap away as the manic girl made a berserk rush at him with her sword held up high. He couldn't help but snicker. Shigu wiped away his smile by using his arm-in-arm style to try and cleave open his head. Hoji was ready, though, and caught the sword with his own in a reversed grip.

"You must've forgot" Shigu started, panting, "because you were talking to your boyfriend, but we're fighting here cuz!"

"Hey now" Hoji started casually, even bored, "Shin and me are bros, not butt-bros." Shigu almost cracked a smile, which did break his concentration enough for Hoji to swing his sword arm away. With his sword's kinetic energy, he let his grip set back to normal in mid-swing and swung again, repeating to get another reverse grip. Shigu avoided the first one but got cut across the chest on the second.

"You piece of--" Shigu nearly insulted. 'Nearly' because Hoji wouldn't let up his offense, and because Hoji's offense now involved using his sword as a vault and drop-kicking Shigu in the face. When Shigu went flying away, Hoji slashed his sword out of the stone road and relaxed himself. His sword still in reverse grip and behind his back, Hoji stared down Shigu, who just kept getting up for more and more punishment, and a wild grin came to his face.

"Admit it now while you can still talk" Hoji demanded. Shigu looked at him through his one good, not-swollen-from-getting-kicked-really-damn-hard eye and furrowed his brow. "Just say how much stronger and better at ass-kicking I am, and I'll let you die with dignity."

"Yeah?" Shigu now slurred through his busted lip. "Or what? How else will you kill me?" Hoji slowly raised his sword up sideways, then set his grip back to normal and twisted it so Shigu stared down the razor edge of the blade.

"I'll castrate you!" Hoji answered back with an evil grin. Shigu's eyes went wide. Suichi rolled his eyes, having heard this bizarre ultimatum, and buried his face in his hand from the nearest still-intact house in the square.

* * *

Wespnaald: Wasp Needle in Dutch. Not every region uses Japanese in this world, just the cool ones.


	29. Ryoko Usamari

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Hoji's nefarious smile sent shivers down Shigu's spine. The constant threat of his serious demeanor towards castration made t hard for Shigu to think straight. Every other thought in his head dealt with his natural attachment to his balls and the rampant fear of losing them to such a violent man. Without the mercy of a regular warrior or the tact of a normal soldier, Hoji continued to push ahead with his opponent barely ready for the wild swings that used the inertia of his entire body. The slices over powered Shigu's grip, forcing his sword to waver after each blow.

_This ain't right_ Shigu thought to himself as he retreated from the crazy-eyed Hoji. _This guy's using too much force! His attacks shouldn't even be half the speed they are!_ Hoji took a step in and spun around, bringing the full crashing force to send Shigu's sword into the ground. With much horror, Shigu was forced to watch in stunned amazement as Hoji continued his onslaught regardless of normal physics. Gathering unknown kinetic energy, Hoji was able to propel himself forward, foot first, right into Shigu's chest. Shigu was sent tumbling backwards with his sword still in his vice grip.

"Dun dun DUUUN!" Hoji menacingly sang as he marched forward, swinging his sword by the pommel string like a nightmarish testicle guillotine. Shigu inched his way backward in a panic, but his back hit a wall. Now between a rock and a hard place, Shigu opted to try his desperation move.

"You know what they say" he started arrogantly "about a rat in a corner, right?" Hoji step didn't slow but he did look curious. Shigu raised up his sword, pointing it straight at Hoji like a fine arrow. The tip of his sword was covered by the hilt itself in Shigu's eyes, but Hoji continued forward. "_**PIKKEN!**_" Shigu's spell was incanted, which stopped Hoji short of his reach, but it did nothing. This left Shigu was a cocky smile plastered on his face and Hoji staring down at him oddly.

"...um" Hoji attempted.

"_Pik-KEN!_" Shigu reiterated, thrusting his sword forward again. It didn't work twice now. Shigu started shaking his sword up and down when he found the problem. Upon bringing his sword back in for closer inspection, the blade was shattered near the handle and missing. His eyes went white from shock and bulged slightly out of his head. Then, Hoji raised his sword up, casting a bright-white glare across Shigu's face.

"Aaaand..." Hoji started, preparing his sword to effectively end his enemy's manhood. Shigu started to scream weakly, then loudly and with great terror as Hoji's sword vertically descended right over his crotch. "CHOP!" The sword met solid ground, just barely missing Shigu's balls. Hoji had planted the sword firmly into the ground, leaving his opponent so bewildered and dreadful that he simply fainted.

"Tch" Hoji grunted, disappointed. He drew his sword back out and sheathed it. "That was a waste of good effort." With his enemy white-eyed, he started panting and bent down low at the knees, resting his elbows on his legs. "I wonder how Shin's dong..." Hoji's panting was unsettled by the sudden darkness of his robe being dropped on his head from above.

"He could be better" Suichi stated from above. Hoji removed his robe and looked up at the assassin's stone-cold serious face. With desperation, he jumped up to the roof and watched the battle from afar.

* * *

Ryoko found herself in a dire situation. He spirit pressure field was having no effect on the rampage of Shin, who used the energy to his advantage and empowered his swings whenever possible. Her arms were getting tired from the excessive use of her sword, her glasses were broken and she had trouble seeing far away without them, she was screwed overall against Shin. Regardless, she was still fighting with every ounce of her strength and knowledge.

"_Binshoraiko!_" She incanted, firing the explosive bolt of blue lightning that curved to try and hit Shin. He dodged, using his area to his advantage, and jumped from the piles of rubble on one side of the street over to the house across from it. He jumped upon the window ledges and the steppes of the roof until he was close enough that the pressure dragged him back down. Then he took his sword in both hands, pointed it down, and stabbed into the ground to create a shield of dust. Ryoko swiped it away without trouble, but Shin was gone from it.

A loud grunt informed her that Shin was behind and ready to swing. She turned on her heel just in time to barely block an iron-cutting down stroke that Shin delivered with only his right arm. The force was still great enough that it forced her feet through some of the tougher debris she was standing one. Shin detected her weakness and made his move. Still hanging in mid-air, he let himself push in forward onto the blade and flipped off of it. Ryoko lost her balance and spun around while Shin stomped towards her. When he got close enough, he started stabbing with mechanical accuracy and speed. Ryoko used her sword like a shield to block, but the force was starting to get to her.

_This isn't working!_ Ryoko reminded herself. She took her other hand and placed it on one of the runes. She waited for the next big impact from Shin to hit, then she summoned up all her might and pushed him away. IT only sent him so far until he came right back with slice after cut. Upon connecting with her sword, Ryoko took her hand and her foot to push him, sending him outside her spiritual radius. With her energy spent, she fell to her knees and began to pant, leaning on her sword like a wall. _It's no use, he never gives up. He never stops attacking. He never gets tired! He really is a monster!_

"Hey!" Shin shouted. Ryoko looked up through her transparent sword and saw him standing with his sword sheathed, resting his hand on it. "Your field went down. Is that normal?" Ryoko was shocked. The fact that he was able to notice that she had let up her energy even the slightest bit of change in her field was frightening to her. All of her spiritual research over the years of fighting and she had no explanation for this man.

"Why are you doing this?" Ryoko demanded. Shin tilted his head slightly and shifted his feet.

"Doing what?" Shin asked.

"The Kyuuhiouto," Ryoko said between heavy breaths, "why are you out to destroy them?"

"Oh, that." Shin confirmed. He paused to think about his answer for a moment and came back to her with a very half-assed response. "Cause I'm bored?"

"What the Hell then!?" Ryoko shouted angrily. All of her remaining strength was being quickly consumed by her anger, and she staggered down further. She breathed deeply a few more times and tried to stand back up. "You" she growled at Shin, "are the worst kind of fighter!" Shin furrowed his brows curiously at her implication, then he watched her take her hand and tensely grip the right side of her face. Her angry eyes grew wide and went white, as did her surroundings. With a shrill, shaking scream, Ryoko let out a huge wave of spiritual energy that ruptured the ground and crushed everything. When the devastation blasted past Shin, he was unaffected. To him, it was just a wind.

_This doesn't look good _Shin thought. When the air was clear again of energy, Ryoko stood in a crater that was bordered with debris on all sides. Her hair was undone and floating up like fire. Her sword's runes were moving like gears and the blade's form became translucent. It was like a square, broadsword that was growing as the runes slowly crept apart.

* * *

"_**Shirushienko: Kokugen Sazanami**_" Her demeanor had changed dramatically. The blade continued to inch outward as the runes spun slowly and new ones started growing between them. Shin watched and grew slightly impatient.

"Let me guess" Shin shouted above the roaring energies. "Bankai?" Ryoko just smiled.

"Who knows?" she sadistically replied. "You can find out if you defeat me." With a burst of powerful speed she shot down the street with her sword ready to swing. He spirit field was gone, most likely relocated to her sword, but she was changed for the worst. The outwardly stoic strategist had become, ironically, like a monster with hideous, snarling teeth and wild eyes. She swung and Shin blocked. He went through two houses before stopping inside of a third. He stayed reclined into the wall, his arms and legs rested up in the indentation with a frightened family looking at him. From a far distance, he could see Ryoko, standing out in the street creating a whirlwind around herself of sheer power.

"Well, damn" Shin said, pushing himself out of the hole and onto the floor. Once he was out, he rested his sword on his shoulder and started walking forward. "This is tricky. Shikai I can definitely handle, but not Bankai..." Shin out his free hand to his chin and thought. "Then again, it doesn't feel or look like she used any specific process other than Shikai to make that sword...it could be-" Ryoko interrupted Shin's subtle thought process by appearing out of nowhere with a high-velocity foot to the face. Shin was thrown down the street he had stepped into.

"An eye for an eye" Ryoko lowed, "Mr. Monster." Ryoko's sadistic personality came as a shock for the onlookers who had known her to be very quite but quick to anger by her underling. The citizens that watched were hoping, some praying, that the mystery swordsman would end up winning this fight. Hoji and Suichi kept pace of the fight on the rooftops, knowing that somehow, Shin would pull through and win. Shin was hoping himself that he would pull through in the end.

* * *

Pikken: Dutch for 'Sting'.

Kokugen Sazanami: Time Ripple


	30. Hollow Twilight

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

And so the fight raged through the town. Finding his efforts to block in vain, Shin jumped and dodged Ryoko's wild and powerful swings. In doing so, he noticed a strange pattern that her sword was taking. With each swing it seemed to shrink, and as time passed without her offensive it grew. Shin had guessed that this ability was constant, keeping as far away as possible from the estimated swing radius at all times.

"So that's it then?" Ryoko growled in question. "Your fantastic offensive was just for show? Now that I have more strength, you can't fight back!?" Shin was begrudged to reply, mostly because he knew she was right. Refusing her strikes anymore, he leaped away as her blade smashed down and through what was left of the cobblestone road and landed on the roof of a house still barely intact.

"No one said my strength was that limited" Shin shouted over the cracking of rocks. Ryoko looked over with her demonic eyes and smirked as she lifted her blade and let it slowly grow. "I have power that you don't want to see, girl."

"Oh?" Ryoko grunted. "So then you'll show me this power? Your released state?" Shin stared on blankly, refusing to comply with an answer, then gave a vacant and confused grunt while tilting his head.

"Release what?" Shin asked.

"Are you slow!?" Ryoko shouted. "Shikai! Initial Release! It's simple!"

"Ah!" Shin shouted compliantly. "No, I can't do that."

"Then quit talking big!" Ryoko chided back. Shin pointed his sword straight up while still crouched on his toes and tilted his head down at her.

"Look at the sky!" he commanded. Ryoko blinked at him in confusion. "On one side is the setting sun, and on the other is the rising moon! Both spheres are comparable to the greatness we all search for! No matter how far we walk or run or fly if we can we will never reach those celestial things! They are far out of our reach." Ryoko could sense a heavy cloud of danger forming around herself. With her sword adequately huge, she decided to shut up her prey and swung down, obliterating what was left of the house.

"The sun is taunting" Shin continued from another house behind her. "It shines with a radiant golden sheen, symbolic to the highest echelons of power! The flaming sphere that brings light to everything and burns the sky!" Ryoko turned around on her toes and made a sweep, blowing away the house completely.

"Shin!" Suichi called out in panic. Hoji watched on with aggravated disbelief as the girl seemed to be keeping Shin from properly acting.

"The moon" Shin continued from above again. "A tranquil, silver shield that brings light through the darkest nights, a glimmering beacon that quells the heart's worry! It stays away the demons that come in its dark domain of night. It shows us that there is light everywhere as it sails smoothly across black sky..."

"_Binshoraiko!_" Ryoko screamed, shooting the house Shin was perched upon into dust, as well as the several blocks after it. She panted, her sword retracting from the spell, unaware of where Shin would pop up next.

"This is the razor's edge, my dear" Shin lowed from directly behind her. "This is where the day and night meet and split apart. Tell me," he started, raising his sword up in both hands above his head, "which sphere will shelter you when you die?" Ryoko's eyes went wide with fear. A mass of energy, more than she was using before, came from nowhere and started twirling around Shin. The neutral energy that she could see twisted around in both directions, circling the shinigami before her and spiraling upwards along his sword.

"_**Boko no...**_" Shin began to incant. Hoji knew the spell well enough to grab Suichi and get away from the general area quickly. The pressure that was produced a split second before his stroke cracked rocks, blew away rubble, and fell Ryoko to her knees. "_**Hakumei!!**_" He sword crashed down, and the energies of both night and day swirled in wonderful orange tower of explosive light. Ryoko was caught in the middle, lifted off the ground and spinning in the air in the middle of the deadly explosion. Her sword's runes broke apart from the clear, glass-like casing of the blade and dissipated in the energy.

_It's amazing_ she thought as the light became brighter and brighter until the light suddenly vanished.

* * *

Now the sun was gone. The purple horizon blended the shadows of the ruined town to create an uneasy darkness which the frightened citizens of the town stepped out into. The devastation of the fight that broke out was still as prominent as it had been when it was created just moments before. The mystery swordsmen who had watched from the roofs were now sitting with their victorious friend who was on his back, panting hard. His sword was sliced into the ground beside him, his feet just at the edge of the crater his powerful attack made.

"Dammit, Shin" Hoji huffed. "You went too far!" Shin panted harder and more sporadically, attempting to laugh. Hoji and Suichi were staring into the hole where the unconscious, lashed up Ryoko laid. There were cuts all over her that seemed to appear out of nowhere from the huge wave of pressure, most of them tearing up her shinigami garb. Above all, Hoji's amazed statement came from the shrapnel that used to be her sword in a neat line that led up to the shattered piece of metal sticking out from her sword's hilt and handle.

"Shattering her sword at that level" Suichi marveled. "Remind me never to get you mad..."

"Ha!" Shin blurted out in response. "I never thought I'd even have to use that technique" he admitted exhaustedly. "It drains the utter hell out of me."

"I remember when you used that first one" Hoji said. "You passed right out."

"Oh yeah" Shin replied, suddenly remembering. "That was the giant, big-nosed Hollow..."

"A Gillian" a voice said. Hoji and Suichi turned their heads with a start to the now conscious Shigu who was strutting down the street leaning on a cane. "Those big hollows, they're called Gillian." Hoji shot up with his sword drawn and Suichi placed his hand readily on his.

"Ah, calm down" Shin chided them tiredly. "If he's hobbling on a stick I doubt he can fight you." Hoji looked at him, then kept his eyes neutrally on Shigu as he sheathed his sword again. Suichi decided to relax himself as well. "Now, how do you know this, guy?" Shin asked.

"I don't" Shigu admitted. "She does." Suddenly, Ryoko's serious, sharp presence became radiant. She was standing just before Shin, the soft moonlight casting a white glare off of the glasses that appeared on her face without explanation. Hoji slowly turned as she administered her massive spirit pressure, forcing him down to his face. Shigu pushed on his cane and flew back, just out of her radius. Shin, without any energy to retaliate, just laid back and let his body slowly sink into the soft, broken ground.

"I know more" Ryoko started "than you probably think I do. I'm not just some random girl who's good with a sword, I'm a scientist."

"No, I caught that" Shin said with great strain, "when you said you were the head of a research thing with the...thing."

"Seriously, Shin?" Hoji grunted in strain and disbelief over his friend's stupidity.

"However," Ryoko said, adjusting her glasses, "I can't let you live now that you have declared war on my parent organization. Shigu!"

"Yeah?" her subordinate yelled.

"Kill these two whelps" she coldly ordered.

"I can't" he shouted back.

"WHAT!?" Ryoko yellled venomously with an exaggerated scowl and white eyes of anger. "Why not!?"

"The bald trick broke my sword!" Shigu replied distantly.

"I AIN'T BALD!" Hoji growled loudly, despite the pressure. Ryoko jutted out her jaw in anger and held out her hand, in which was her broken sword.

"Fine then!" she yelled, Suddenly, her sword slowly started to grow out from the handle. Soon, its basic form was back, and she was ready to stab down into Shin's still unmoving skull. Regardless to the danger presented above him, Shin smiled. Just as Ryoko was about to make the attack, she jerked forward. Her hands became limp and she dropped her sword beside her. Her spirit field lifted as she fell to her knees then over to her side. Hoji shot back up, pushing himself up with one arm and face Suichi, who had crept in under her radar and stabbed her in the back.

"Good job" Hoji said.

"Even though you didn't tell me" Suichi started, letting his Shikai chain blade dangle from his hand, "I still knew when you needed an assassin."

"Hooray for teamwork!" Shin joked weakly. Suichi and Hoji both laughed heartily while Shigu and the villagers spectating looked on with utter horror. Three killers were laughing like drunken men at the apparent death of the girl. After all the fighting and all the blood, they laughed so well and fully that it cause many faces to cringe.

"That's scary" one man said in the crowd.

* * *

Through the night the village allowed the three to rest and sleep and eat what food the poor people could offer in what shambled shelter they could provide. Granted, Shin had inadvertently dug them all a new shallow well or pond with his attack, their work had just started. Other reports of a group of obscenely destructive young men fighting the Kyuuhiouto had circulated around through the villages under their grip.

"So that's why you guys hid?" Hoji said with his mouth full of meat.

"Yeah" a bashful young man said. "We thought you were them."

"Well, we were" Shin said. "We still are, by the way. I don't think we _won't_ be them any time soon..." There was an awkward silence among the men in the tarp-covered room.

"...what?" Hoji grunted. Shin smirked and laughed softly.

"How's the girl doing?" Shin asked. The young man, not wanting to stir up another tantalizing little quip from the riddle-spouting shinigami, just made a shaking motion with his hand.

"Like water?" Hoji asked. The young man then slapped himself on the head. In another tent, Ryoko was still unconscious and her cheeks were puffed out significantly. The young and old doctors and village medics were gathered around her, trying very hard to discern her condition.

"We should ask that young man" and old lady doctor suggested. The younger doctors cringed.

"Ask an assassin how he crippled her?" a young woman dreaded. "I'd rather not."

"It was simple" Suichi explained, appearing room the air and earth in the middle of the gaggle of women. His voice scattered the young and easily frightened around like dust from a lightning strike. "I used a spirit energy amplified acupuncture on her back. She'll be out for a few days, with a slight side effect of cheek puffing. I'm not sure why."

"Interesting" the oldest woman medic said. "You should teach it to me. So, where will you three go next?"

"Wherever" Suichi said noncommittally. "I'm really just floating along with those two monsters...a leaf in a hurricane..." Suichi stared off blankly, thinking hard about how his fate would unfold as he stayed in tow of two men so powerful that their fights destroy towns and spread terror throughout an entire countryside. As he did, he unconsciously smiled.

* * *

Boko no Hakumei: Hollow Twilight


	31. Interrogation

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The next morning, when Shin could move without shouting painful profanities, the three departed leaving Shigu to the wrath of the village women he had abused in the past.

"And if you don't mind" Shin shouted behind, "we're taking the girl with us!" Hoji had the still unconscious Ryoko slung over his shoulder and was already starting down the road.

"Umm" one medic girl started curiously, "you aren't going to...um...defile her, are you?"

"I don't believe in rape" Hoji shouted.

"It's for information" Suichi confirmed. "That's it. Plus, with her gone from there the Kyuuhiouto has no ties in this village anymore. See ya." With just his wave, all three were gone. As they walked away into the rising sun, the villagers departed. Their memories still fresh but quickly retreating, another mark on the map of Shin Kenpachi's murderous conquest across the world. A conquest grown out of boredom.

* * *

But not everyone in the world is bored. Some are angry. In the harsh Badlands in a bordering region to where Suichi is fleeing, Netami prepares to reenter a more sociable place. A fortress that is occupied by shinigami in the war against the bandits that were now dead and the Hollows that, given Netami's tendencies, would soon be dead. His clothes were replaced and fine again, his sword in its hilt, and his eyes still gleaming red and orange.

"I know this place" Netami said to himself as he walked. "I came here as a child and achieved Bankai. What wonderful times those were, when conflict escalated into war and death ravaged the land like a wildfire in the sky. How I still long to achieve such a state, one wherein I could set the sky itself into a tumultuous blaze that can blacken even the darkness of the night. I wish to scorch everything with my dark flames...but first I must kill Suichi. He hold the truth about my massacre. With him alive my alibi may be useless...of course I wouldn't have an excuse to kill him even if I found him. I'll need to rally the others..."

After his careful prose and planning, Netami dashed of and blazed across the rest of the barren land of flat, dusty rock. The borders of the fort that lied ahead were guarded around the clock by giants, men of twenty or so feet tall, with angry and disobedient dispositions. More often they slept than guarded.

"Is that a flea in the distance?" one giant asked the other. His friend, leaning against the wall of the fort, looked up.

"No!" he jestingly replied. "I believe it's a water flea!" Both giants laughed loudly as Netami approached quickly. He stopped suddenly, letting a surge of his energy ripple out and blow through the giants. They sat shock-still now.

"May you allow me in, gentlemen?" Netami said with a low tone. The giants lowered their weapons at him.

"I don't think so" one said.

"How do we know you're not with the bandits!?" the other demanded.

"Those barbarians?" Netami said, looking back. "I ate them all." The startling straightness with which he said that shook the giants to their toes. "My name is Netami. I'm with the Shinigami Royal Coat-of-Arms in this region. I require transport to Seireitei..." The giants continued to be speechless, knowing the name from somewhere they wished not to speak of.

"Go ahead in then" the giant offered. Netami disappeared from them and reappeared inside the walled complex. Bust men and women were running about, carrying bundles of things for various tasks. Food, wood, water, weaponry, all was rushed to and fro in a panicked mess. Then, from a high-risen tent in the center of the camp came a tall, lean man wearing a dark cowl and an angular mustache.

"Oiiiii. Who's this guyyyyy!?" He proclaimed, leaning back and pointing erratically in Netami's direction. The shinigami all stopped their activities and took notice, recognizing his steely face immediately.

"My name is-" Netami began.

"HA-WAIT, brother!" the tall commander shouted. He flashed over and placed his fingers nearly on Netami's head. "Let me read who you are. I can tell very much from a man with my super-psyonic mind reading!!" Netami let the odd man hum loudly, pressing his temple on, and hoped silently that his finger would pierce into his brain so he would stop making noise. "Your name is Enrique and you are here for my sandals! Well, I'll tell you, brother, that my sandals are not for sale or retail!!" Netami, now fully annoyed, grabbed the man's long index finger and twisted his whole arm. "Ah! Brother' your hurting me!!"

"My name is Netami" Netami introduced. "I require immediate transport to Seireitei..."

"Why didn't you say so!?" the tall man whined charismatically. "We have a caravan going there straight away! You just hop on over and we'll get you situat--" and then Netami threw him into the far wall from only the grip of his finger. The tall man limply crashed down to the ground while the dark figure strode over to the assumed train of wagons still being stocked with supplies.

"This train had better leave soon" Netami noted. At the tone of his order, the shinigami picked their pace up to impossible speeds, hauling many loads of random things each trip, in an effort to calm their nightmarish guest. Netami smiled to himself and sank down into the empty wagon to sleep, the first real rest he could have had in the longest possible time.

_I'll find you Suichi_ Netami thought as he drifted away into sleep. _No matter where you have gone..._

* * *

With a cold splash of snapping cold, Ryoko was forced awake. Initially, she was just annoyed and stirred, listening to her own groaning and the voices around her.

"Looks like she's up" a man said. "Or she's having a bad dream."

"Try hitting her." another suggested.

"With this?" another voice offered. Fearing getting hit with whatever implement they were holding, Ryoko struggled to open her eyes.

"Sure" another voice confirmed. Just as she flew her head up with eyes open, she flinched at the wet slap of a fish to the face.

"Oh, she's up" Shin said, holding a live fish in his hand. Ryoko spat the rank taste of the object out of her mouth and confronted her captors with a vehemently angry face.

"Why'd you hit me with a fish!?" she demanded.

"A tree trunk seemed excessive" Shin explained.

"And these things" Hoji noted, holding up some pussy willow reeds "are to flimsy. They'd just irritate you."

"I'M IRRATE ENOUGH!!" Ryoko blared, forcing all three men to jump back. She sighed to calm down and tried to cross her arms, only to notice now that she was tied at the wrists and legs. Above that, her outer robes were missing, and her chest wrap was exposed. "Wha-where are my clothes!?"

"I'm wearing them" Shin admitted. "They're kind of tight on me, though. You need to build some muscle."

"SHUT UP!!" Ryoko shouted. Then she broke her anger and got scared. All three men that had invaded and successfully leveled her grip on the town were looming over her, staring her down. "Oh god. You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Shin looked back at Suichi. "AREN'T YOU!"

"**QUIT SHOUTING!!**" Shin roared. His voice knocked Hoji off his rock perch, shook the birds from the trees and killed the fish in his hands. That or suffocation, which isn't as interesting. Shin stood up and tossed the fish back into the brook behind him, Suichi dodging it barely. Ryoko buckled back, her eyes wide with a deep fear for her life from just Shin's voice echoing through the mountains. "We won't kill you. You're just a restless sleeper."

"What?" Ryoko asked breathlessly.

"You kick in your sleep" Hoji explained, getting back up onto his small rock seat. "You really messed up my back for a bit...it's fine now though." Ryoko looked confused, out of place and a little scared at the group's intention.

"I want information" Shin confessed, standing up slowly. "What you used on my was either Shikai or Bankai. Tell me now and no word games." To the effect of seriousness, Shin drew out his sword and pointed it down with a swing at her face. Ryoko didn't flinch this time, now that she knew her life wasn't ending anytime soon.

"It..." she started reluctantly, "it was Shikai."

"I knew it!" Hoji shouted happily. "Suichi, you owe me a free meal!"

"Fine" Suichi agreed. Shin nodded, wanting her to continue with an explanation.

"All swords" she began informatively, "are extensions of their owner's souls. As a scientist of spiritual power, I was able to learn how to fluctuate my own power when activating my sword, giving it more than just one form. Our swords are reflections of ourselves, our own personalities and traits in another form. Knowing the name of your sword is enough to release it, but knowing how it works is much different. Much more complex." At the length of her explanation, Shin sat down and sheathed his sword with the threat no longer necessary.

"Well" Hoji began "how did you find out your sword's name?" Ryoko looked over at him to address his question.

"I just did" she responded plainly. "One day my sword spoke to me and I knew what its name was."

"It was the same with me" Suichi added. "One day after a job I just knew my sword's name. I know how it works well enough, too, but not as well as you apparently."

"Indeed" Shin contributed, feeling left out of the loop between the other two 'enlightened' shinigami. "Which of those forms was the true one?"

"Neither" Ryoko said. "My old sword's real form is obsolete. Much less powerful that the other two."

"Even the first one?" Shin asked.

"The first form I used" she responded "was the closest without being exact. The second form, Kokugen Sazanami, was a form where I amplified the main trait of my original sword. That is, the form to expand over time when not fighting."

"Interesting" Shin said. "is this a well known process to the shinigami, or just you?"

"As of now" Ryoko admitted "I am the only shinigami I know of to extensively research this. I'm sure others can do the same, but under different terms and in different ways. I'm not positive about it."

"More specifically" Suichi now began, "is this a process that requires exclusive training?"

Hoji clapped his hands and pointed out "That's a great question!" Then, he pointed to Ryoko for the answer she had.

"Not that I'm aware of" she said. "The process comes naturally to me, but again, I'm primarily a scientist in the Kyuuhiouto. Their fighters aren't as...graceful as I am."

"One last question" Shin said. "Then we'll untie you."

"Not one!" Hoji whined. "Ten! I have a lot of questions to ask her!"

"What about?" Shin said, glancing out of the corner of his eye at his comrade. Hoji felt the sting of Shin's glare and backed down.

"It's not important" he said in defeat. "Just B.S., really."

"Where is the Kyuuhiouto headquarters?" Shin asked. Not expecting the question to be brought up, even after her references, Ryoko recoiled.

"No!" she spat. "I won't, I can't tell you that! If they found out that I not only was defeated but betrayed them as well I'd die!"

"You're being interrogated by two berserk murderers and an assassin" Suichi pointed out. "Are people who don't even know you're gone yet really a concern?" Ryoko bit her lip in defiance, but Shin's icy glare was too much for her. She sighed, and mumbled her response.

"...Gevlav..." she said. "The General and his guard are all in Gevlav right now."

"Great" Shin said thankfully, cutting her ropes with a flash of his sword and tossing her her coat. "And where's that exactly?"

"No way, Shin!" Hoji complained, stomping over to him. "If I can't ask her my questions then you can't ask her another!"

"I'll ask her what I wish!" Shin bellowed, trying to make his statue-esque friend flinch. "I beat her once, I can do it again!" While Shin and Hoji argued, Suichi shooed Ryoko away, giving her a look that told her 'run while you can, this won't stop'. So, she ran, desperate but unafraid through the forest. She didn't run back to town, but stayed in the woods.

"These men are crazy!" she noted to herself. "If they go to Gevlav like that now they'll get mowed down in an instant! I should do something about that...maybe...tell the General?" and then she stopped. She skidded and dug her feet into the ground and stopped in her sprint. "...no" she decided. "That rat bastard deserves to get his ass kicked now! Let him die, and these stupid, brutish thugs with him!" Ranting and raving about the injustice of the society she just rigorously defended, Ryoko went stomping through the forest while Shin and company prepared once again to move out.

Their target this time, Gelav...  
once they procured a map.


	32. His name is hard to pronounce for some

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"So where's this town anyway?" Shin asked as he walked. Hoji and Suichi were trying to catch up with him as they sparred the whole way down the road with sticks. Suichi was mostly focusing on his dodging, since Hoji was using a log to spar with.

"I'm not sure" Suichi admitted breathlessly.

"We should find water" Hoji began, "and follow it!"

"Maybe" Shin replied thoughtfully. "There's the possibility that a town is existing away from water. Especially one harboring major underground dogs..."

"Tch" Hoji huffed, striking down Suichi at last. "What's that mean?"

"The heads" Suichi started, still out of breath "of the Kyuuhiouto wouldn't base themselves in a town that could be easily found."

"That" Hoji said, cupping his chin, "or they wouldn't be in a town at all. Gevlav could be a city, or something. That way they'd be much harder to find."

"Good point" Shin added. Just as the trio was ready to start walking normally again, the road started to stop. The beaten path of dirt and earth was becoming less distinguishable from the grass around it. Soon, there was no road anymore, not even wagon tracks. Stretched across them was a wide plain of rolling hill covered with a lush grass carpet.

"This doesn't look good" Suichi pointed out.

"How so?" Shin asked.

"The road stopped" he continued warily "in the middle of nowhere. It looks like anyone who got this far never went anywhere."

"Maybe its a nature retreat" Hoji guessed. "That'd be neat."

"Nah" Shin logically dejected, "then there'd be a lodge or something."

"This doesn't surprise you two!?" Suichi shouted. "The road just fricken stops! Isn't that creepy!?" Shin and Hoji shook their heads negatively. Suddenly, a loud thunder came rolling across the plains. All three looked over to the gray skies in the distance, and then it came again. There was no lightning, just a booming bass of thunder. With every sounding it seemed to get closer. The sound was starting to get harder, more solid. Instead of thunder, it sounded like a very deep and resonant army marching with drums on their backs. But instead of an army, the boys braced themselves to the approach of a single man.

"Unn?" he grunted as he crested the hill. He had very lazy eyes and sloppily combed back blue hair. He also wore an eyepatch with the word 'Iwa' printed on it. On his back was a drum, one bigger than him, and in his hand he held a stick. He pounded the skin of the drum, and the noise actually blew Hoji and Suichi down. Shin had his sword raised up to block, of all things, the noise that thundered out. "Cool" he said to himself. "Survivors!"

* * *

"Who are you!?" Shin shouted across the plain. The man atop the hill placed his huge drum down in front of him, almost as if to aim it at the three.

"They call me a 'murderer'" he replied. "My name's **Lulao Ranruran**. Nice to meet you!" Suichi got up, rubbing his ears in pain, and looked at him.

"What'd he say?" he shouted to Shin.

"His name's Lulilaolin..." he paused when he realized how bad he stuttered, then continued "ranrurururu...nothing important."

"Hey!" Lulao yelled. "Are you flubbing up my name?"

"What!?" Hoji shouted. The noise had apparently deafened both of them.

"Get your sword" Shin warned. Hoji heard sword and raised him own up in a fighting stance. Lulao prepared to strike his drum again, bringing his arm up high, and then his other, pulling another stick out of nowhere and crashed them both down. The thunderous 'DON' shook the ground, blew back Shin and Suichi onto the still half-decayed part of the road behind them and sent Hoji into a rock.

"Who are you guys!?" Lulao asked, twirling his sticks around cockily. Shin tried to clean out his ears to stop the ringing, but he heard the man well enough.

"I'm Shin Kenpachi!" Shin announced. "Hoji Araijin, Suichi the Assassin and I are traversing the countryside to try and eliminate the Kyuuhiouto. Incidentally, do you know where we can find Gevlav!?"

Lulao tilted his head to the side and looked up thoughtfully, nodding to himself and shifting his feet about. "Oh yeah!" he shouted back. "Those guys hate me! The town's in this direction, past some mountains. I can take you there, if you can pay me."

Shin stared blankly at him, which Lulao caught from across the whole field. Hoji groaned and settled himself on his feet again, picking at his ears.

"What's going on now?" Hoji asked.

"We don't have any money" Suichi reminded his stone-faced leader. Lulao still stood expecting a response that would be good for him, leaning in with his hand cupping his ear.

"Then let me ask you this" Lulao started. "Can you guys fight!?" Shin gave a smirk and pointed at his face with his sword in that derelict fashion his is prone to do when he gets annoyed. Suichi released his sword and held up his arm for the drummer to see. Hoji, of course, still bent his back down a bit and kept his hands close to the ground. They all stared him down, silently accepting his challenge. "Fair enough. If any one of you can beat me, I'll escort you through the mountains to the city."

"Ah" Shin pointed out apathetically. "Looks like Hoji was right. It is a city."

"Let's go!" Lulao shouted. He clicked his sticks together rhythmically and let the other three charge. Then, as the neared the base of the hill, he slammed down, shooting them all back, and continued to pound to a fast beat while they flew. Hoji was able to spin back around and plant his hands a feet on the loose ground while he was hurled through the air, Shin and Suichi holding their ears to try and block the pain.

"It's not just the sound" Shin thought aloud "but the vibration that makes the force! His drum must not be a normal drum!" Lulao continued to beat on his huge drum, banging his head to the rhythm he made. Suichi watched on as Hoji progressed toward the hill, undaunted by the sound but being kept at bay by its force.

"So that's how it is, eh?" Lulao commented. He banged his sticks off the skin of the drum and let the twirl through the air. Hoji took the chance and rushed while Lulao decided to show off, jumping up and spinning in the air. He grabbed the sticks again and used the force and energy of his whole body to bang them both with a cataclysmic 'BOOM'. Hoji stuck his sword into the ground and held his arm up to his face. The crash of air echoed across the rolling hills, decimating rocks and stones throughout the passage to the mountains. Shin and Suichi were thrown back ,unable to hold their own with the pain of the bass in their ears, so now the battle was left to Hoji.

* * *

"How you like that!?" Lulao shouted. His voice even carried the distance equal to his drum. "The power of my sword, _**Chikyuu no Uta**_, is enough to move mountains and swell the sea! This weapon of mine has leveled entire villages with only a single note!"

"What'd he say?" Suichi moaned from within the ground.

"We fighters with no reason" he continued with his arms raised in the air, "we Manzenryuu, are the only real power in the world! We have no one to limit us, no chains to bind us! The sky is our limit, and the stars are our only real friends! I support you campaign, brothers, but as one of you I can't just hand over my help to you! So fight me or di---" And that's when, unseen from the side, Hoji delivered his nearly trade-marked flying kick to his opponent's face. Lulao tumbled all the way down the hill, grunting in pain each time he hit the dirt.

"There!" Hoji roared. "I beat you! Now what!?" Shin kicked himself up and looked at the hill. Hoji was on it, looking down the side, and picking his ears still. Hoji pulled a large, dense wad of disgusting moss out of his ear which had been lodged in when the first explosive blast knocked him down. Lulao, at the base of the hill, recovered himself and jumped back up to the top. Hoji caught him out of the corner of his eye and slashed with his sword, impacting and holding it on both of his drum sticks.

"That isn't normal wood, is it?" Hoji asked.

"Nope" Lulao replied. "You must be a smart fighter, to notice that the sound and the reverberations had to work together to make the weapon work. Since you couldn't hear the sound, you only had to move past the wind. You're good."

"I'm alright" Hoji admitted modestly, picking the rest of the crud out of his ears.

"Or you're a lucky idiot" Lulao said, embarrassed at himself. Hoji withdrew his sword onto his shoulder, letting Lulao move back to his drum. He gently set the sticks down, which still made a loud, unexpected bump, and Shin's sword was at his neck the next second.

"How do?" Shin lowed. "So then, you'll take us to Gevlav now?"

"Heh" Lulao chuckled nervously. "Sure thing, guy."

"Here's an idea" Suichi said, crawling up the hill exhausted. "Maybe you can help us. If you're against the Kyuuhiouto as well, you may as well stick with us for a bit longer."

"Meh" Lulao politely dejected. "I do my own thing. Like I said, we're all Manzenryuu fighters. If we start uniting and forming up, we may become a replacement for the Kyuuhiouto. Just kill them and do your next thing..."

"Hmm" Shin mused quietly. "Good point. By the way, why are they mad at you?"

"I leveled a town" Lulao explained "with a bunch of their soldiers and suppliers in it.

"Ah, that's cool" Shin noted. "We've defeated and effectively dethroned three of their highest advisors in the bordering towns in this region."

"Not bad" Lulao praised as Shin sheathed his sword. "But why are you guys fighting them?"

"I'm not sure" Shin admitted. "I mostly want to fight some strong people to get stronger myself, but now I feel like that won't happen immediately. So now, I just blame myself for this war." Lulao deactivated his sword and sheathed it behind his back. "Right now I''m fighting because I'm bored." Lulao nodded and started walking ahead of them.

"Stick close" he warned. "Hollows are everywhere here. If you see one, chop it down quick, okay?"

"Sure thing" Shin acknowledged, walking beside him.

"I assume it's quite far, right?" Suichi said, half-whining about it. Lulao nodded, Suichi slumped down, and all four of them started walking across the dark green plains towards the higher mountains in the distance.

* * *

Iwa: Rock (as in stone)

Chikyuu no Uta: Song of the Earth


	33. 11 Heavenly Demons

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Seireitei, the city at the center of the world. At this point in time, it is only the center of its mother region. This is the realm of the shinigami, where the war between the feuding countries sparked and where the fire of battle roars. In the city, the center of the massive place, was the Court of Pure Souls. Far beneath that building where the political dignitaries and pompous puff-shirted old men delegated, was the Court of Heavenly Demons. Netami had just arrived in this subterranean building.

"They'd all better be here" Netami said to himself. He entered the spacious temple room to the sight of eight other people, all of greatly variant appearances sitting around a stone-cut table. Netami took his own seat between two empty ones and looked around. "All of us aren't here yet" he said. "That's disappointing."

"It's all quite fine!" an older man called out. He sat flexing him muscles, his mouth covered by a fine and wide mustache. "There's enough of us here to hold a valuable meeting."

"Out of eleven" a dark-skinned woman with a huge collar blocking off her mouth and nose "only nine of us are present."

"We KNOW!!!" A huge, muscular man with a massive broadsword on his back shouted, pounding cracks into the table in anger.

"Calm down, you guys" a man who sat in the shadows wearing a long, billowy cape with frayed edges said in disgust. "It's not like you aren't going to die eventually."

"We may be" Netami said. "Upon eliminating our most pressing threat, the Hibanobachi family and their court, I was discovered by a rogue assassin from the Guild."

"Damnation, Suichi!" A dark-skinned, well spoken but very gruff faced, red-haired old man said, hitting the table. "Can you do nothing without raising such a horrendous panic!?" Netami glared over at him quickly, keeping his hands together in front of him but thinking hard about reaching for his sword.

"Whatever" a young man with brown, messy hair said, leaning far back in his seat. "Netami screwed up a bit. It's nothing we can't handle. We can just find this sucker and eliminate him, right?"

"We could" Netami said, "but I have no idea where he is..." The room grew cold and silent for a moment. Then the missing, two, one fat and happy looking with a samurai-knot hair style and the other wearing glasses and smoothed back graying hair, entered and sat, placing their hands upon the table.

"Great news, comrades!" the jolly big man began. "Kingo and Sosuke have returned with news from the war front!"

"Feh!" a busty girl with fire-like hair huffed. "You two are the only ones who care about the war!"

"Maybe for now" the slick Sosuke said in his infinitely charming voice, "but right now we have some quite relevant information."

"How so?" Netami asked.

"It's not like you were all quiet" the fat Kingo said, chuckling and patting Netami hard on the back. Netami quelled his murderous anger as much as he could but still felt like drawing his sword on the spot. "Tell them, friend Sosuke!"

"Apparently" Sosuke said, leaning forward, "the cross-regional nuisance the Kyuuhiouto is being hunted and destroyed by a small group of travelers."

"Knights?" the proper red-head asked.

"No" Sosuke continued, "Manzenryuu swordsmen. Hoji Araijin, Suichi and Shin Kenpachi." Netami grinned at the mention of Suichi's name. "It seems that they are now between points. They are headed for Gevlav to finish off the gang themselves."

"Why?" someone asked. Sosuke smiled and answered.

"From what I've heard" he began "they're just bored..."

* * *

Unseen by the public, each of the members of the mysterious table departed through the city in different ways. Some of them stayed together to discuss their plans for the new rising star of the west, Shin Kenpachi, and his fellow fighters.

"These Manzenryuu" the large, angry table-goer started "really piss me off!"

"Why's that, Toki?" a pale girl with a frail-looking frame and black makeup asked.

"It should be obvious, Gloria" Toki growled. "They always do whatever they please, not thinking of the consequences and running from town to town slaughtering whoever they want!"

"So?" Gloria asked, dodging the human traffic on the sick streets. "Then you should become one."

"That's not the point!" he roared. "And that's another thing, a position like that should be earned, not just randomly available for whatever bastard wants to do it! I earned my spot at Hell's Table, they should earn their freedom!" Gloria tilted her head at him, then drew out her sword and silently released it. She was now holding a stylish, pink and tar-black umbrella with seemingly pulsating patterns in the pitch dark hues.

"Then kill them" she suggested. "Kill them all if they piss you off."

"I will!" he said, clenching his fists. Elsewhere, near the farther end of town, Netami was nearly ready to depart on his own when the young, very relaxed man and the older, proper gentleman cam up behind him.

"You know" Netami said to them both, "we're not at the table anymore. I can draw my blade on you whenever I like."

"We're not seeking trouble with you" the large, proper man said. "We simply want a justification of your actions."

"I'm going to find Suichi" Netami said "and kill him. I may as well kill his friends while I'm at it, too. Any competition in the land is a good enough reason to cut someone down."

"He's nuts, Kakugari" the younger man said to his associate. "You can't just barrel into enemy territory in times of war looking to fight a single dude! The whole country'll be on you!"

"You should come with me, Horoshi" Netami cruelly said. "It may be fun to fight these men..."

"Hoo!" the previous, muscular old man said, flipping into scene from above. "I shall come as well!"

"Really, Senshi?" Kakugari said sarcastically. "You may be in a peak condition, but what know you of politics with the sword?"

"I know enough" Senshi chided. "And I know that little Netami is too young of a sproutling to charge into battle with strangers alone. I shall accompany you, regardless as to what you may want!" Netami glared at them all, increasing his spiritual pressure greatly only to see them all counter it laxly. He wanted to push it further, knowing her could, and crush them al so they wouldn't come along, bu then his mind gave him a better idea.

"Fine" he agreed, raising his field. "But if you happen to die, I won't care. And if you are about to die, I won't save you..."

"Easy" Horoshi said. "We just won't try to die!" His juvenile confidence forced his seniors to chuckle lightly at him, which he brushed off and marched on up to Netami. "Where to, team leader?"

"Indeed, captain" Kakugari said, marqueeing the term captain. "Where shall we begin our venture?" Netami faced him for a moment, then just turned and started walking.

"We're going on foot" Netami said. "If Suichi can survive like that, then so can we."

"Fair enough!" Senshi said, flipping gracefully through the air behind Netami while the others simply walked.

* * *

"Things are coming along nicely" Kingo said from a high-rised building window. Sousuke, sitting across the room, took a deep drink of some viscous liquid. "Sousuke, your throat still aches?"

Sosuke gulped down the last of the horrible liquid and gave a strained "Yes" before coughing softly. "I should be fine in due time though, my friend."

"Kingo grows worried about the Tenshioni" Kingo said. "He thinks maybe some civil strife may erupt upon the return of Netami and company..."

"Worry not, my friend" Sousuke said, pouring some sake into cups on the table. Kingo came over and sat across from his friend. "Our organization is not so weak as to waver at the slightest threat our members may make about rebellion. We are much more dignified than that."

"Still" Kingo said, taking a sip of sake, "Kingo does worry. Netami's pride and fear of power could become very problematic for us all. Toki will doubtlessly hurry off to fight whomever he can, and Gloria will keep in step with him. Those two cause Kingo the most grief."

"They are but children" Sousuke said, sipping his sake likewise. "They at least have responsibility, unlike the others. Chosuke and Yuureiko tend to be very wild and exclusive respectively."

"And Koumoto gives Kingo the willies..." he said, shivering in example and sipping carefully from his cup. "All in all, our group is quite unstable..."

"Nothing will happen, my friend" Sousuke confided. "I can assure you, the only thing Netami will find out there in the world of fighting is disappointment."

"How so?" Kingo asked, pouring his friend more sake. Sousuke leaned back and looked up at his ceiling, as if he could see the sky through it as he prophetically gazed.

"I have had..." he started "another vision. Of the distant future!" Kingo nearly dropped the bottle he held. In this world of unending war, where the Golden Age of the shinigami power brings out the greatest legends and forces the world has ever seen, there are truly monsters among the men. The Tenshioni, the Manzenryuu, the Kyuuhiouto, all of them with different purposes, some darker than others, and all of them fiendish plagues on the waring society at large. Now, all these forces, the wanderers, the plotters, and the great movers, all shall converge together!

...at some point...

* * *

Tenshioni: Heavenly Demon

Manzenryuu: (recap) Aimless/Perfect Path. Either interpretation is correct, but use Aimless when talking about it.

Kyuuhiouto: Nine Secrets Gang


	34. Danzig

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin and his comrades, accompanied now by the madman Lulao, walked in tandem down a stark and barren forest path. It wasn't even so much a path as a uniform spacing between the thicket of trees that they were able to navigate through. Lulao guided them all forward, noting on specific trees and other natural formations in his own wayfinding style while the three others walked behind him, with Shin near the front.

"So, Lu" Shin started.

"Oi" Lulao groaned, "are you skimping out on my name?"

"How long have you lived around here?" Shin finally asked.

"I've never lived around here" Lulao answered. "I don't live anywhere! I just happen to pass through here from time to time when I decide to go."

"So you do live around here?" Hoji prodded.

"Nah" Lulao answered again. "I'm a wanderer, a Manzenryuu. I have no home and no family, just myself and my sword. Those are the only ones I trust."

"So you don't trust us?" Shin asked.

"How can I?" Lulao asked. "A maniac, a murderer and a professional assassin? And above that, they're all lined up behind me. It feels like my back's on fire with anticipation."

"Hey, Shin" Hoji whispered. "Am I the maniac or the murderer?" Shin shrugged.

"I'll tell you, though" Lulao started, "I love this life. Just walking for days and days on end with no cares about the world at all. Food is everywhere, water is plentiful in the forest, and it's always fun to make a Hollow's head explode."

"There are Hollows out here?" Suichi asked.

"Moron" Lulao replied. "There are Hollows everywhere. I've seen how they get here, too."

"Really?" Hoji asked, suddenly interested enough to push Shin to get next to Lulao. "How?"

"They have this ability" Lulao explained, "to open up the air and step through a huge, gaping portal into our world from theirs."

"What's in their world?" Hoji asked.

"I'm not sure" Lulao answered. "I've never really wanted to find out, and the Hollows never have enough time to tell me when I'm killing them! Hahahaha!" Hoji snickered as Lulao laughed at his own joke. Shin and Suichi converged on each other with a concerned air.

"I don't trust this guy" Suichi whispered to Shin.

"I suppose you don't have to" Shin said. "We only need to trust him until we get to where we're going..."

"But suppose this is a trap?" Suichi figured. "What if he's leading us down a dead-end path, or into a pit or something?"

"Unlikely" Shin said. "He has the capacity to kill us right now."

"But couldn't you kill him first?" Suichi asked, steeping his faith far into his comrade.

"I could" Shin said, "but then how'd we get out of here?"

* * *

"Okay, here it is!" Lulao announced.

"Finally!" Hoji growled.

"Let's take a rest first" Suichi suggested, panting. Lulao shrugged and found a rock to sit on. Expanding before the four was a wide canyon path, full of small caves and caverns. The craggy, twisting spires of rock nearly blocked out the darkening sky, and the sun had long ago been forgotten by Shin and his friends. They had been exploring a darker world of green and progressive brown for the last few hours to get this far, and according to their guide, they were nearly back to the world with an infinite sky overhead again.

"I'll stay" Lulao said, drawing out his sword. "Sound out the beat from the Earth to the Sky, _Chikyuu no Uta!_" His sword became his huge drum in a bright flash. He sat the drum down in front of him, twirled his sticks, and prepared to lay the beat down in the enclosed canyon walls. Hoji noticed him a moment late, as his sword only came near his neck when he started playing. Instead of thunderous booms that broke rocks and bones, he just played the drum normally. The pace was fast but steady, and he varied where he hit to make it more melodic than just a monotone symphony. "Relax, dude. It's not always a weapon..." Hoji looked down shamefully and sheathed his sword.

"Sorry" Hoji apologized. Lulao shrugged.

"You guys should sit and listen a minute" Lulao offered. "I'm a pretty solid player, if I may be so brash."

"You may" Shin joked. He decided to stand and listen to his gracious guide, taking the offer to hear the non-fatal music as a gift he didn't want to decline. "Let's rest for a sec." Hoji nodded and sat back down. Suichi was gathering his breath through meditative pose and mantra. Shin, with his sheathe off his belt and his hand on the grip, sat against the rock wall while Lulao played.

Stealthily, and silently, off in the nearby woodland brush, a group of Hollows watched and listened in to the shinigami playing. A whole group of bloody, wide-mouthed stalkers waited in the bushes for their observant comrade to report.

"Well?" one impatiently asked.

"I don't think it's safe" it reported. "He has others with him this time!"

"So do we" one Hollow pointed out. "Our bigger brothers are here to help us!"

"Where?" the scout asked. The other Hollows, looked around, not seeing anyone else that they wanted to find. "They're gone!"

"Crap!" one harshly whispered, holding his head with his hands. "What do we do now!?"

"Hey, look!" the scout called. The small Hollows rushed over and peered with their yellow eyes through the bush and saw a tall, slim figure marching down the beaten path towards the shinigami. The little Hollows all shivered and whimpered as they saw their big brother, as it were, approaching the four killers alone. Lulao was bobbing and rocking along to the beat he elegantly made. The other shinigami wagged their fingers and nodded along, enthralled with the song and neglectful of their newest intruder.

"Hello" Shin said. He noticed the Hollow creeping up before anyone else. Suichi and Hoji perked their heads up casually at first, but they both sprang to attention when they saw the Hollow. He was tall, taller than a normal one but not so tall that it was monstrous. He was oddly more humanly-built than the Hollows before him, with sinewy arms and legs. His mask was even different than any other. It looked like a bucket that was worn as a helmet and extended all around his apparent head. There were no definite eyes to see, but may slender slits in the mask where one could see through if they had eyes. He even wore a bleach-white, tattered robe with a sash around his waist.

"Well" Lulao noted, "that's unexpected." He continued to pound away on his drum anyway.

* * *

"Oh no, this is bad!" the tiny Hollow lookout screamed now that his cover was worthless. "He can't take on all four of them!"

"One of them even has a released sword!" another Hollow pointed out. "It's hopeless!!!"

"Everyone, quiet!" a deeper voice shouted. Leaning against the tree was a massively-built Hollow, muscular to an incredible degree, with a large mask that seemed to resemble a tower from his neck. "He can take care of himself well enough..."

"Ah! Baruk!" the Hollows cheered. "Please, why won't you go help him?"

"He doesn't need my help" Baruk, the Hollow, replied. "Besides, he wouldn't forgive me if I did help him."

"Please, little ones" a feminine voice now announced from above, "calm yourselves and observe." Up in the branches was a bird-like Hollow, large enough to fit on the sturdy branch of the tree it perched in without breaking it, having an appropriately falcon-like mask as well. "Take this as a learning opportunity. You brother can handle himself well enough on his own without our intrusion."

"But, Lady Liera" a Hollow pleaded, "what if he can't?"

"Then Baruk and I will assist once he's dead" Liera, the falcon Hollow, replied."

"Ha!" Baruk laughed. "I wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, why help that upstart anyway? He pisses me off."

"You only say that because he disrespected you back home" Liera pointed out. Baruk's glowing eyes furrowed with anger and he started to growl, as if he had a rebuttal to deliver with much belligerence.

"Oh no!" a little Hollow called out once more, interrupting Baruk preemptively. "They've drawn their swords!" In the clearing where the forest dissolves instantly into mountain land, the Hollow stood firm. A gust billowed the tattered ends of the robe around his legs. All three shinigami had swords drawn and ready, with Lulao on standby with his drum.

"Can we help you?" Shin asked. The Hollow just glared them down from his dark visor.

"Are you even a Hollow?" Hoji asked.

"He is" Lulao answered. "He isn't a normal one, but he's a Hollow."

"How do you mean 'normal'?" Suichi asked. Shin had a flashback moment, where he thought about the feeling he got from a Hollow and the feeling he got from the giant monster Hollow he long ago vanquished. This one felt like an in-between. It had the mind of a Hollow but the field, the pressure of the giant one.

"This thing is strong" Shin announced. Promptly, Hoji and Suichi tightened the grips on their swords. Suichi prepared to incant his release as soon as he could.

"My name is Danzig!" the Hollow shouted in a booming voice. "I am here to eradicate you overzealous shinigami!"

"Do what you want, bro" Lulao said. "Just know, we ain't shinigami. We are Manzenryuu Warriors!"

"Regardless' Danzig announced, "you carry swords stained with the blood of many Hollows. I will destroy you for the good of all my kind!"

"How are you a Hollow?" Shin asked. "You have no animalistic qualities that all Hollows seem to have. The only abnormality you possess seems to be your peculiar mask."

"Yeah!" Hoji added, trying to fit himself into the conversation.

"I am a higher form of Hollow" Danzig explained. He took a step forward with his bare, human foot, which shook the surrounding canyon walls. "I am an 'Adjuchas' Class Hollow! I have gained great power that many Hollows before me couldn't beat, and thusly I devoured them to increase my own power!"

"So" Shin began in speculation, "Hollows don't train to gain power, they eat."

"That's not completely true" Danzig said, continuing forward with great weight. "It takes great personal strength and training to kill many of those that I have already killed. Eating them is more of a bonus..." He now stood in front of Shin, keeping his head forward. Shin was a full head shorter than the beastly monster. Hoji prepared his own advance while Shin kept a hand tightly gripping his own drawn sword. Then, Danzig's arm shot up. Shin reacted by shooting open his eyes and positioning his sword over his head. Danzig smashed into Shin's guard, pushing his feet into the ground and forcing Shin to clench his teeth in pain.

"Shin!" Hoji shouted. A static crackle was heard. The monster had its leg up behind Hoji and kicked him into the grounded and shaken Shin. They collided and tumbled away together, Hoji having knocked Shin free from the ground. Suichi jumped away and prepared to release his sword as Lulao continued to sit with sticks at the ready.

_This is unreal!_ Suichi thought with deadly sternness. _Even with Shin and Hoji fighting as seriously as they could, and with me and Lulao fighting with our powers...I doubt we can defeat this thing!_ Dazig, the monster that stood above them all, glared them all down with invisible eyes as Shin and Hoji got back up and prepared themselves for a war!


	35. What power iS

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Danzig was on the offensive. He dashed at Suichi with insane speed that could barely be dodged. Of course, the accomplished assassin dodged him and whipped his chain wildly at the monster.

"Shoot, Haganerensa!" Suichi commanded. His chain shot out with speed greater than the fastest arrow and impacted with a steely clash on Danzig's head. The hit made the Hollow stumble a bit, but he was otherwise fine.

"Let's jam, monster man!" Lulao shouted. The shinigami covered their ears and he pounded on his drum. The sound pressure blasted around the canyon walls and reverberated back at Danzig repeatedly. The Hollow was hit hard by the attack and was forced back a few steps before digging his feet into the solid ground. He kept one arm up in front of his face to block what he could, but when the sound stopped he couldn't lower it in time. In rushed Shin, sword at the ready, who jumped up and stabbed into one of the Hollow's mask slits.

"Guh!" Danzig gasped. Shin was still cautious enough to draw his sword back out rather than leave it in to twist the wound, but it proved futile. Danzig's thin but solid white arm caught Shin's sword before he could pull it out. "My, that was close! Thankfully, I have evolved beyond the need for a face, or I may have died!" So Danzig, with Shin's blade in hand, swung Shin around and smashed him to the ground. Then he let go and kicked Shin across the canyon path. All that abuse and Shin was able to stand up, daunted but physically fine save some minor head blood.

"This is interesting" Shin lowed. "His greatest weakness is just a trick. I'll have to get crafty to kill this one..."

"It's hopeless" Hoji said to Shin. "Let's just surrender!" Shin glared at Hoji who smiled in turn. Now wasn't the best time for jokes, however, as Danzig continued to attack. Shin jumped up in time to dodge and Danzig's fist hit the rocky wall. Shin grabbed onto the high ground, along with the expert Suichi and the awkward climbing Hoji. Lulao sheathed his sword and jumped up, holding his position with his sword in the wall. Danzig slowly and haltingly tilted his head up at them.

"Shinigami!" he shouted. "Come down!"

"Screw you!" Hoji responded. "You come up here!"

"Hey!" Suichi shouted "Don't encourage him!"

"You can't jump, can you?" Shin asked.

"Exactly" Danzig answered.

"That's lame!" Hoji growled.

"As an 'Adjuchas' class Hollow," Danzig explained, "my abilities lie within my original form. I used to be a very heavy creature, I know that much, and I retained those qualities of weight all the way to my current form. I may be much smaller than I used to be, but I am also far to heavy to properly lift myself off the ground."

"Tch!" Hoji mockingly grunted. "Sucks to be you then! We can fight you from up here!"

"Perhaps" Danzig said. He raised up his arm at Shin, and Shin became cautious and ready. "I am grounded, but I can still fight you from here..." He held out his open palm as the Hollows in the brush at the canyon entrance watched him. A twisted, spiked column started slowly oozing out from his palm. It was as thick as his arm, covered in blue, vein-like lines and many protruding spikes that all pointed up...at Shin.

* * *

"AHH!" The small Hollows screamed in astonishment. "Danzig is so amazing!"

"He's not that great" Baruk gruffed. "If I were fighting those shinigami, I wouldn't mess around or make any conversation with 'em. I'd just kill 'em!"

"You'd die" Liera chided. "It would be over far to quickly for you to do any good."

"Says you, wench!" Baruk shouted.

"Oh my" Lierea said, observing the fight, "he's using his 'shots' already. He must be desperate..."

"Observe, shinigami!" Danzig roared. "I can fight you wherever!" The spiked lance shot out and rocketed at Shin with amazing speed. Shin dodged it, but the canyon wall that got hit exploded into a fine cloud of rubble and doom. Shin caught the wall again with his sword and heard the sharp humming whistle of the lance traveling through the air. Shin hopped across to the other wall to dodge it, then another.

"Screw this" Hoji growled, putting his sword in his mouth. "If he's just gonna fight Shin then we may as well be sleeping! I'm going in!"

"Hoji, wait!" Suichi pleaded. It was too late. Hoji pushed himself off and fell towards the Hollow monster, taking his sword back into his hands again. Danzig was about to fire another lance at Shin, but noticed the growing presence above him. So, he slowly drew out the spiny lance and gripped it with his free hand to block Hoji's cut.

"This is my sword!" Danzig announced. "I call it **Punzante Muerte!** It rips through everything it touches." Hoji hit the ground with his sword still in the down-ward cut position as Danzig prepared to slice down with his malicious club.

"OH!" the Hollows watching shouted. "His weapon is amazing!"

"It just reeks with power!" another little Hollow shouted.

"Calm down, little ones" Liera calmly ordered. "Danzig only uses his ability as a weapon when he has determined a situation to be too difficult to settle with just his hands. This means he is nearing the end of his rope." The little hollows shifted mood right then. They no longer cheered senselessly, but refocused their scorn on the shinigami who threatened their brother's life.

"Fight me, shinigami!" Danzig roared. "Fight me and die!" Hoji continued to back-peddle away from Danzig who occasionally shook the ground with his swings. Hoji jumped up and bounced off the walls a few times before settling behind Danzig. Hoji took his sword behind him with one hand and pointed an open palm forward with the other.

"_Senkou no..._" he incanted. Danzig caught the incantation and darted to the side, avoiding whatever mediocre spell Hoji had to throw. "_Shikyo!_" The lightning arced to the side and slammed Danzig into the face of the rocky wall. A steaming mark was on his side as the bright red light started to disipate from the air. Hoji didn't rest on his laurels, however, as he dashed forward with Shin coming behind him. They both intended to thrust in the same, mirrored manner. Danzig got up, clutching his masked face, and dodged them with incredible speed.

"He's too fast!" Suichi yelled from above.

"Well, yeah!" Hoji shouted. "He's heavy, of course."

"Well, that doesn't make sense to me!" Lulao shouted from his own perch. He was now sitting on his own sword, perfectly balanced on the handle.

"His body is very heavy" Shin explained. "That's how he swings so strongly. He is able to somehow shift his weight around, making his front much heavier than his back, which also allows him to move rapidly."

"He can flash step too" Hoji added. "I think that has more to do with his Hollow powers than anything else, though."

"Very good!" Danzig roared in appreciation. "I've never met anyone who could figure me out so quickly, and while we're fighting no less! You're good, murderers of Hollows, but you're still weaker than I am."

"Oh?" Shin grunted playfully. "You'd be surprised what strength we've been holding back..."

"That's right" Hoji growled. "When we want to fight seriously, we do. And them people often die. Since you're a Hollow we had to hold back to assess you strength."

"But now I'm quite moved" Shin said "by your personal plight. Come at me," Shin offered, drawing his sword over to his side with one hand and clutching it with both. His spirit pressure suddenly rocketed, smashing the loose rubble and debris from the fight. The air became heavy, so much that even Danzig wavered a bit from the suddenness. "I'll let you meet your brothers in Hell..."

* * *

"Guuu" shivered the little Hollows. "Is he in danger yet?"

"Let him die!" Baruk arrogantly shouted. "Less hassle for us to keep up with him!"

"Don't be so brash" Liera said. "If he dies, who will protect you from the shinigami?"

"They won't find us, will they?" a little Hollow asked.

"I believe they already have." Liera answered. "At least, that one with the eye patch has..." Lulao was glaring down at the clearing. His specially honed sense of hearing from using his own weapon in battle so much had picked up on them long ago. Now that he couldn't fight the monster present, he concentrated on how he would end the little ones down in the woods.

"Lulao!" Suichi shouted. "Why aren't you helping us!?"

"This ain't my fight" Lulao defended. "Hell, it's not even yours. This Hollow's out to avenge his fallen brothers, he doesn't care which shinigami he kills, as long as he gets one." Suichi glared at him with disdain, a fighter not fighting, and focused back on Shin and Hoji. Hoji retreated to the cliff wall again leaving Shin and Danzig on the battlefield alone.

"This should be fun" Shin growled.

"I'll splatter you, shinigami!" Danzig threatened. Shin flashed forward, kicked off of Danzig's chest and spun in the air. Danzig swung and Shin's spiraling sword deflected the club into the ground. Shin landed perfectly on his feet and jumped onto Danzig's weapon. The Hollow pulled it up, and Shin with it, with the intention of slamming it into the ground behind him. Shin flashed off onto the wall, still holding his sword with both hands, and darted ahead into Danzig's side. His sword barely cut into his steely skin, but the force was enough to push him away from his planted club. The resulting motion twisted his arm out of its socket.

"AHH! Damn you, shinigami!" Danzig roared.

"Hmm" Shin grunted. As soon as his feet made contact with the ground he rushed again, this time he came in through the air just at Danzig's face with his sword high overhead. "Goodbye" Shin lowed. He crashed his sword down into Danzig's mask, cracking it along the border of his perfect slice. Danzig used his good arm to punch Shin in the gut and then throw him and his sword away.

"You must be an accomplished swordsman" Danzig growled "to pierce my skin. No matter. I shall end you and your brethren here." Danzig took his limp arm and forced it back into socket with a nasty pop. Then from both his hands came new clubs that he took in similar grip. Shin got up from his dusty crater with a slouching posture and pointed his sword at the monster from within the cloud. His blade shone brightly in the dark chasm with a killing intent that echoed from Shin's very soul.

"The end is far away for me" Shin said, taking his sword in two hands once more. "Death is very unbecoming of a warrior like me." The dust suddenly blew away. All around Shin was a clear apace where the ground was smooth from the blast of wind. Danzig's heart shifted, a deep sinking feeling within his bleach-white body.

_What is this?_ Danzig asked himself. _This feeling of nothingness, this hopeless pressure inside me. Could this be fear? Fear of death? An experience that so many before me must have felt...yes. It must be._ Shin exploded forward and slashed hard into Danzig's doubled-up guard. The heavy Hollow was pushed back from Shin's stroke and had only a portion of a second to recover before Shin advanced again. This time, a thrust that broke through the block and cut deep into Danzig's flesh. Shin took his sword, twisted it in the wound, and sliced a streak of blood out. _And this pain, the pain of death? An inevitable event that can't be avoided no matter what!? Is my fight impossible after all?...no..._

"I refuse to be pointlessly killed!" Danzig shouted. He kicked at Shin, who completely dodged and landed in his already heavy leg. To rid himself of the threat of another kick, Shin took his sword high and swept the Hollow's leg away. The sound was painful for everyone to hear, not excluding Danzig to feel. The blood started to gush out as a new leg began forming when Shin cut off both of Danzig's wrists. Instantly, two menacing lances grew from the stubs. "I shall smash you!" Danzig announced. Shin flashed up with a foot to his slited face and kicked off of it, ramming Danzig's head into the canyon wall even more. Then, Shin blasted forward with his foot barely touching the ground and kicked once more in the still fresh wound he made. The hot blood soaked the sole of his sandal.

"You're death will not be for nothing" Shin said. Danzig looked down at him with his silent eyes, just to see Shin slicing off his arms at the shoulder with one instant movement. "You have given me hope, monster, that more strong fighters shall emerge in this world from your own." Danzig allowed his body to become limp and fell to his knees. Shin's sword tapped lightly against his skinny neck, with Shin standing over him ready to draw back and swing. "Tell you brothers to find more fighters, more Hollows to kill me. Believe in yourself and your race, and succeed death!"

Danzig was silent for a moment. Knowing his brothers, his partners waited in the brush and watched him with no hope left, he refused to answer his killer. But he had an answer. _We shall meet again, Shin_ Danzig told himself. Shin's blade went up with both hands aiming at his neck. _I shall not regret this meeting, and because of you I will become stronger, no matter what..._ Shin's sword fell with amazing speed, slicing straight through the Hollow's neck and igniting a fountain of blood upwards. Shin stood silently for a moment, the body of his fallen opponent drifting slowly to the side. Suichi, Hoji and Lulao dropped down to the ground cautiously. The blood stopped and the body, like those before it, dissipated into nothing.

* * *

"Let's go" Shin said. He sheathed his sword and started walking. Hoji stared at the corpse a moment longer and followed, Suichi holding his gaze the longest.

"Gevlav" Suichi started "is just through this pass, right?"

"Yeah" Lulao answered. "Just go on ahead for about a days hike and you'll be there."

"What about the other Hollows?" Suichi asked. Lulao turned back to see the scared creatures ducking back into the woods.

"I'll take care of 'em" Lulao answered. "You should get moving. Who knows how many more they'll send..." Suichi nodded and dashed off. Shin and Hoji were walking along, their swords sheathed and arms crossed, glaring ahead at the opened path. Suichi joined them wordlessly as they walked through the gorge to Gevlav, not a word spoken at all...

* * *

Punzante Muerte: (Spanish) Biting Death


	36. The Siege of Gevlav

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin stayed silent and vigilant the whole way through the chasm to the open field that stretched out to the bordering mountains. Hoji occasionally sneezed or 'Tch'ed as they went along, but the silence was far too odd for Suichi to stay passive about. It wasn't like Shin to ignore a battle, or Hoji not to talk about one. That's why Suichi stayed far behind them as they walked. The uncomfortable aura that they both exuded was too great for him to get caught up in.

_The town should be here somewhere_ Suichi thought. _Then again, if it isn't, then this must a trap like I thought! Those stupid bastard, they walked right into Lulao's-_

"Oi, Suichi! Quiet down" Hoji shouted. "We're here."

_HE CAN READ MY MIND!? _Suichi shouted internally.

"He can't read minds" Shin said, "we just know what your thinking face looks like."

"That's great" Suichi said "but you didn't really testify that." Shin turned to a rolling area of the field, one that ascended up and dipped back down. He flash-stepped over first. Hoji and Suichi followed immediately. Down in the rolling valley was the town of Gevlav, a city built out of misfortune. For countless years, this area had suffered the attacks of nature. Earthquakes, floods, even a meteor strike. However, despite all the death and destruction, the people of these rolling plains decided that their perseverance would triumph over even the terror of nature.

They built their mighty town, Gevlav, in the greatest crater they could find. Houses built in the sides of the crater all around the great tower that still continued to stretch above the limits of their city into the sky. Somewhere down there the Kyuuhiouto leaders waited for the oncoming walking-slaughter house that was Shin Kenpachi.

"Let's go!" Shin commanded. All three simultaneously darted forward and wound up back-to-back, shoulder-to-shoulder in the center circular pathway at the base of the tower in town. "Now let's think" Shin said. "Where would they be if they knew we were coming?"

"The tower?" Hoji asked half-sarcastically.

"To obvious" Suichi said. "If they know we're here the heads will move out."

"Incidentally" Shin added, "if they know we're coming, shouldn't they have a defense set up?" Twenty men clad in ninja garb darted into scene suddenly, surrounding the three. Shin's face was locked with an emotionless embarrassment.

"Good going, Shin" Hoji said.

"Split up?" Suichi whispered. The other two nodded and reached for their blades.

"Halt!" one of the ninja shouted as they all drew their swords. "By order of the leader of this town, General Ken Yaburashiji, you are to surrender yourselves to the glorious Kyuuhiouto!"

"Screw you!" Hoji shouted out.

"That's it" the same ninja lowed. "Company, prepare to attack!" All the warriors spread their legs into attack position.

"Shin," Suichi started, "you and I go in opposite directions and scour the town."

"Right" Hoji said, "and I'll take the tower."

"You do that" Suichi said amusedly.

"We'll save the body once we find it so you can kick it before we kill him" Shin added.

"Tch!" Hoji hushed furiously, "screw you guys too! Screw everybody..."

"I got it" Shin said. "First one to find him, head back to the center of town and pin his weak-ass body against the tower gate."

"Oh yeah" Hoji growled.

"Best of luck, monster men" Suichi said, preparing to release his sword. All this strategic talk went on between the time it took for the ninjas to prepare themselves and then actually flash ahead.

"Attack!" shouted the ninja. All three were gone, and the ninja's swords clashed together in the air against nothing.

* * *

"I'll have to find him fast" Shin said to himself, sprinting through the empty streets and peering into empty homes. "This guy won't be easy, that's a given. If he's the leader of all these maniacs I'll have to expect an all-out brawl...and a strong shikai." Shin started throwing open doors, gazing into the multitude of single-room homes as he blazed about. Most were empty, but some had ninjas who were bored until Shin found them. Now he was running from people as well as to find people.

"You guys want me dead, right?" Shin shouted back. The ninjas didn't respond. "Fair enough." Shin spun around and floated across a flat section of the stepped town's street. With his sword out, he kicked the ground behind him and dashed at the ninjas. One swipe sent them all flying back with all the energy of Shin's sword colliding with their stomachs. "I don't need any of you dead, though. Just out..." Shin skidded to a stop in the street and sheathed his sword again. The bodies of the knocked-out ninjas went tumbling past him.

"Weak..." Shin lowed. He dashed forward again and continued to check the houses at light speed. As he neared the top of the steep slope of homes, the street widened out with the contour of the crater. He stopped in the middle of a wide intersection and looked around. He could already sense that no one was in the area, but a fog of doubt came over him.

_Someone's here_ he said to himself. _It's no pushover, either. It actually feels...darker than normal. Who is it?_ "Who's there!?" Shin demanded sternly. From behind him a foot stomped to the ground. Shin turned and glared down his new prey...

Meanwhile, Suichi continued his much more stealthy hunt around the other half of town. All the houses of ninjas he found he ignored and because of his superiority at evasion, they couldn't acknowledge him in time either.

_Crap_ Suichi chided himself, _if either of them find him first, they'll never let me hear the end of it. At worst, Shin will try and train me, but Hoji will hold it over my head until I forget what the sun looks like. _Suichi then came upon a house with one man in normal garb sleeping in a bed. His sword was up against the wall and no ninjas were around that he could sense. _Trap _Suichi thought. He did the smart thing. First he secluded himself and released his sword as quietly as possible. Then, he found the nearest ninja and used his assassination acupuncture to knock him out and carried his body to the house. The shinigami was still asleep, thankfully. _Here it goes..._ Suichi tossed the body through and open window at the shinigami's sleeping body.

"ZA-HA!" shouted the gruff voice of a warrior. The very same shinigami that laid in the bed now dropped down from the ceiling with his released sword. It had a serrated crescent blade that curved inward from the tip attached to a plain metal handle. He dropped with the serrated cutter pointing down at the ninjas neck, but drew it up at the very last second. "Gah! You stupid moron!" he roared, snatching the unconscious ninja from the air and shaking him angrily.

"I told you little cocks, Do Not Disturb me! I get very jumpy when I'm in hiding." The ninja just groaned weakly and the shinigami threw him to the floor. "Damnation. I could've sworn I felt some huge pressure building up at the tower. I wonder if those guys are here yet?" Suichi, now in the hollowed ceiling where the shinigami once hid, dropped down like a cool breeze with his chain spike extending from his middle finger. The shinigami had no idea what hit him when Suichi descended upon him...

_That was far too easy _Suichi said, cleaning his weapon on his pant-leg as he exited the house. _It couldn't have been him. I should keep looking..._ So he flashed away, searching the other nearby houses, unaware that he himself was being watched from far away.

* * *

"Tch-eehh!" Hoji roared. "What's with you guys!?" He darted around, deflecting and parrying, bounding from wall to wall as the ninjas below and above threw various spiked weapons at him without pause. "If you're going to pick a fight with me at least make it fair! You throw-y bastards!"

"Keep it up!" the lead ninja commanded. "If he can't advance up the tower, we have no concerns."

"Tch" Hoji grunted. Suddenly, he stopped in mid-air, slowly spinning around. The ninjas all threw a flurry of stars that collided against each other where their target once floated.

"Huh!?" one exclaimed.

"Where'd he go?" another asked. A slice of metal through flesh was heard out of everyone's vision. Hoji had impaled the lead ninja through the gut and forced his sword to drop.

"So" Hoji lowed to the dying man, "how bad is it if I get to the top of the tower, exactly?"

"V-" the ninja stuttered, "very...our leader is up there, a man named-" Hoji kicked him in the face, cutting off his flow of potential information, and withdrew his sword. Then, eyes glowing under his shaded brow and a gleaming smile equipped, he turned to the ninjas. Their morale was obliterated, and many considered retreat.

"W-Weapons up!" one of the shouted. They all drew out swords nearly identical to each other and shakily aimed them at Hoji. "Charge!" All the ninjas began to converge. A perfect shot for Hoji. He took his sword in his right hand and held it behind him, then put forward his open left palm. A chaotic ball of red energy started forming and jiggling in his hand. He clutched his fingers, further agitating the energy and making it bounce wildly in his grasp.

"By keeping the energy static" Hoji said to himself, "I can shoot in a straight line and destroy anything. However, since there's more than one target, a single shot won't work as well. I'll have to use a spread shot!" The ninjas were all before him, still charging, with blades ready to cut off his hand before he could act. He drew his arm back and glared them all down with a super-heavy gaze.

"_**Arashi no...**_" he started. The ball shined brightly and stopped everyone in their tracks. "_**SHIKYO!!!**_" Hoji punched forth his arm, sending a battery of multiple red lightning strikes forth! They pierced through the ninjas and blasted into the stone walls of the tower behind them, effectively rending the entire attack force apart. "TCH!" Hoji victoriously spat. "Suck on that, hos! Now then, which way is up?" Hoji glanced around for a stair well, even as the bodies continued to land around him, and found one with many puncture holes around the entrance on the far side of the room.

"Oh, cool!" Hoji noted. "It's still there!" At his word, the walls ominously crumbled and soon thereafter collapsed, leaving Hoji without a set of stairs to scale to ascend the tower. This made his eye twitch and his face elongate with deadpan disappointment. "Okay" Hoji enthusiastically started, "new plan. I'll just cut my way up!" So he took his sword, still in reverse grip, and jumped up. With one mighty slice he blew apart the floor of the next story and flashed his way upstairs. The rubble fell for a few moments, creating a dusty air which otherwise alerted the guards of the floor. Hoji stood opposite them, across from the clearing dust, with his sword forward and tongue out.

"Intruder!" the guards shouted. Hoji prepared to fight with a mad glare in his eyes and a vicious smile on his mouth.

* * *

Arashi no Shikyo: Storm of Death


	37. Three Shadows of Doom

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"So you appear" Shin lowed.

"Yeah, pretty much" said the man that appeared. His steps were heavy, though his frame was not. He wore a robe with tattered sleeves and an exposed chest. Over his eyes were curiously crafted glasses that were tinted black and edged as sharp triangles that pointed out towards his temples. His head was bald and his skin was dark, a person Shin hadn't encountered before. He was obviously a man from another land in the living world that made his way from there and became a shinigami here. "My name is **Mann Aulder**. I am one of the Kyuuhiouto heads."

"How uninteresting" Shin said. "What department do you head?"

"Uninteresting!?" Mann yelled back. He cleared his throat and adjusted his shades while his fellow guards kept their swords half-drawn in threat. "I'm the head of the security division for the main house."

"Oh?" Shin grunted. "So you're the strongest under the General?" Mann's eyebrows went up.

"How did you know?" Mann asked.

"How isn't it obvious?" Shin said, getting in a more lex, standing position. "So far, all the people from this organization have been strong because they had things to protect and uphold. Taxes, property, scientific research: all of these things of varying importance to your little group as a whole. However, your General lives so far away, in the middle of nowhere. It would only make sense that the most important asset of your organization is not its goals or its ambition, but its selfless leader. Therefore, only a guard of the highest elite order could be his personal wall of defense, especially since he knew that I was on the move to kill him..."

Mann stood silent and stern for a moment, then broke out in a chuckle. His guards lowered their own swords into their sheathes and looked at him nervously. "Yeah" Mann said, "that's true. But, you can understand, he's an old man. He's got no fight left in him. I got no choice but to guard him with my life, and that's what I'll do."

"Why?" Shin asked.

"Why not?" Mann responded. "Why do you want to kill him?"

"I got bored" Shin explained.

"That's it!?" Mann shouted in outrage. He calmed down and cleared his throat again. "I'm not doing this out of respect or duty or intimidation either." His guards looked at him in an even stranger way, so he cut them down without moving, without even registering a twitch from Shin's observant eye. They both went flying away, their bodies becoming blurs of spraying blood as they crashed into the nearby empty houses. Shin took up his sword with a serious glower. "I'm doing this so I can fight the strongest of the strong!"

"Well" Shin said, bending his back and parting his feet, pointing his sword at Mann's face, "here I am."

"Yeah?" Mann said, chuckling a bit more. He unsheathed his own sword and pointed it with his back straight and feet together. "We'll see how lucky we are." Shin exploded forward and clashed swords. He put his whole body behind his right arm and pushed with all the force he could gather against Mann's guard. Mann had his sword in one hand, crossing with Shin's, and his feet were firmly planted in the ground. Shin landed form his dash and swiped Mann's feet away. Before Shin could complete his maneuver and recover, Mann caught the ground with his hand and used all the massive strength in his arm to rotate his entire body and kick Shin with both legs. Shin stumbled to the side, keeping his guard up, as Mann pushed up and prepared to attack.

_He's uncoordinated_ Shin realized _but efficient. He doesn't know how to fight like an expert but he knows what his limits are...and I'm not above them. If I can get him to release his sword then I'll be winning this fight...but that sword could kill me just a fast. I'll have to take a more tactical approach to this than I thought._

"Come on!" Mann shouted. He was airborne, his sword high overhead. Shin side-stepped the attack, but the force and speed of Mann's strike blew apart the impacted ground and threw Shin through the air as well. Mann was quick to close on Shin before he could recover and the crossed swords in the air. Shin was pushed away. As he was about to hit a building he flipped and landed on his feet, standing on the wall and pointing straight up and Mann.

"You better start praying" Shin growled. The spirit pressure he emitted began to exponentially rise. Mann was daunted to the point where his slender shades couldn't contain his widened eyes. "I'm gonna make you hear the angels and demon sing!" Shin, unmoved at all by his own pressure, shot forth like an arrow, straight in the air, and swung with all the strength his body could muster into Mann's block. It held steady for a second, but once Shin was on the ground the block was shattered. Shin reeled up his foot and kicked Mann away. Letting his pressure drag him across the ground as he rolled and tumbled. Once he stopped, Mann glared up with a devilish smile. Shin was dashing forth again.

* * *

"..." Suichi now hid. His inner assassin's instincts were ablaze with paranoia. He wasn't the only hunting in the area anymore. He could still hear Hoji's ravaging in the tower and Shin's apparent fighting from the other side of the massive crater. It was both affirming and terrifying to him that they had both found someone to fight in the chaos. It meant that their defenses were indeed as Suichi predicted, but that his fight would ring across the strange atmosphere as well.

_I can feel Shin's pressure from here_ Suichi thought. _It's daunting. Hoji's energy is more uplifting, if that's possible, but he's using more kido than Shin is. There are others, though. That guy was only one of nine. Counting the ones so far, that means there's a possible three members that are here in town and stalking me..._

Again, the high-pitched pinging rang out in his head. Suichi started moving, blindingly darting from house to house in search of a unique energy as he went. He kept low, almost parallel with the roofs he ran across, keeping his wits at full attention.

"I know you're following me" Suichi half-muttered to himself. "Why not just come out?" Sure enough, his request was answered. In his path, several blocks down, a figure appeared and he stopped moving. Suichi stared across the expanse at what he saw as his opponent. He was a slender, menacing man, tight black ninja-esque wrappings covered him from head to foot. On his legs were formal shinigami pants that were tucked and phased into his wrapped stockings that were heavy with black-tinted knives. His face was hidden by black velvet wraps, not even the slightest sliver of white for his eyes or ears to come from. He wielded his sword in the open, with no sheathe to be seen on his person. A minimalist appearance in terms of assassination.

"Who are you?" Suichi whispered. Suddenly, the figure was gone. Suichi's instincts kicked in again, just in time to tell him that his perceptions were wrong. The man at a distance looked about the same height as Suichi. That was an illusion. Suichi could feel the wind being blocked from behind him by a massive figure with a sword raised above his head. Suichi flashed away at the last second, the house that he stood on not a second before erupting with a plume of dust from the strike.

"What are you!?" Suichi now yelled. The manic assassin appeared before him instantly, his sword once again looming in the sky. Suichi panicked, unable to move away in time and he knew it, so he made a drastic maneuver.

"_**Amatsumamori!**"_ With Suichi's incantation, a solid sphere of hexagonal tiles containing symbols formed around him. The other's sword was stopped on the sphere like a wooden sword against a steel mountain. He bound off, disappeared, and reappeared across the street on top of another house. "Well that worked" Suichi noted.

"Who...?" the maniac man hissed loudly. Suichi undid his shield and prepared his shikai for attack. "What...? I am neither. It is where I am that matters to you. I am **Odo**, the phantom warrior of the Kyuuhiouto! The legendary assassin from lands far away! I-"

"Save it" Suichi said from behind. "I really don't care." Odo felt a sharp pain in his neck where Suichi's Haganerensa wrapped around. "Lift" Suichi commanded. His weapon whipped up, lifting its held target from the ground as Suichi's arm made its circle. "Smash!" The chain straightened, following the arc Suichi traced and threw Odo into the building across the street. Then the chain retreated back onto Suichi's arm, ready to fight again.

"HRUUUUUU!!!" roared Odo. The wave of energy from that roar, which amplified the sound waves that already raked at Suichi's ears, blew away the debris and Suichi.

"Gah!" Suichi gasped. "What is this thing!?"

* * *

"Tch!" Hoji snidely grunted. "You guys are weak!" The guards who groaned and gurgled on the ruined floor of the tower couldn't argue against him. "WEEEEAK!" Hoji growled again. "What's a guy gotta do to get a good fight around here!?" He huffed and placed his bloody sword on his shoulder, completely adamant on leaving and ripping around town with Shin or Suichi, when a wafting scent caught his attention.

"That's booze" Hoji said. He noted where the heavenly smell of liquor came from, a set of stairs he neglected to destroy, and started sprinting up them. "Sweet booze!" Hoji happily cheered. Tears were forming in his eyes. He thought it was from the overwhelming joy, but really the atmospheric pressure from rushing up the tower so quickly had messed up his facial glands. His nostrils were overrun with liquid and his saliva was seeping out already. Once he reached the aroma, he was in a garden with the stormy sky from earlier overhead. He was at the top of the tower, walls reaching high up on either side, and surrounded by menacingly dark trees.

"Welcome, warrior!" a gentleman's voice called out. Hoji whipped his head around rapidly, letting the various liquids from his face fly about with great apathy. "Please, pull up a chair and have some sake!"

"Who's there?" Hoji growled. "More importantly, where's the sake!?"

"Why it's right here!" the voice called again. Two glimmers appeared through the trees. Hoji's sharp eyes caught them just in time and his reflexes kicked in not a moment too late. Two sharp knives flashed at him which he blocked with his sword in reverse 'guard' grip. The force of them both first knocked him backwards at the back, sending his torso perpendicular to his legs and parallel to the ground, then blew him away with the second.

"Ah! What an impressive block!" the voice said once more, coming through the trees at last in physical form. Hoji loudly cracked his back and got back up to gaze at his newest adversary. He was a regal looking man with a harmless face, shinigami robes and blond, wavy hair. "I welcome you to the residence of me, **Norbel C. Rieltruque**. Please, make yourself at home! Enjoy the fine wines...and breathe the air while you can..."

"Tch" Hoji sneered. There was a certain menace, an arrogant tone in his final words that made Hoji keep his guard up. He kept low, bending his already far-spread legs with one arm in front of his mouth just in case. "We'll see who enjoys what..." Hoji growled threateningly. He realized how stupid his comment sounded a second too late, as he was already charging forward with his sword drawn far back for a debilitating blow!

* * *

Amatsumamori: Imperial Defense


	38. First steps into Death

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin and Mann stood far apart, catching their own breath after the destructive clashing battles. IN a mutual agreement that the warriors understood, the rest would continue until they were both at optimal fighting strength once more. During this break, however, the sounds of battle around the city continued to sound clearly, all the way from the opposite side where Suichi was fighting.

_This guy_ Shin thought, analyzing his enemy, _is strong...but not much else. In a contest of pure strength he could beat me, but not in skill or speed. That's where I have to take this fight; into the realm of Death that I control. The main problem is getting this berserk bastard to follow me there. If he is unaware of what I'm doing, then dragging him into a new realm of fighting will be all the more difficult. If he picks up on it, he'll augment his style and use his strength to keep up with, or worse, surpass me. It's a real double-standard decision, but I don't have a choice. I can't hope for a miracle to save me now!_

Shin, now adamant with his resolve and faithful in his plan, stood up. He wiped away the blood on his face and discarded his outer robes, as they were far to tattered to be of use now. Mann grinned a mean grin and took off his shades, crushing them in his fist.

"He's got a plan" Mann lowed to himself. "I don't care what it is, he won't get to do it. I'll just power through him with everything I've got!" Mann held his sword up with both hands and invoked a dangerous energy. Shin glared at him from his position, feeling the energy of shikai manifesting around him. "Let's dance, little man" Mann said threateningly. **"Slice the Heavens and Drown the Stars: **_**Habahioriken!!!**_**"**

The destructive wind blew dust and rocks everywhere as the sword explosively changed form. None of that wind dared to come near Shin, whose pressure was so great that the air was pushed down into the ground with horrid force. The sword Mann held had become longer, wider, and much more aggressive looking. He seemed to be holding a huge paddle made of brownish, rusty-looking metal with an equally dilapidated hilt and handle. It was a weapon that had seen the abuse of many battles, one that fit the reckless fashion of Mann himself.

"You've lost, shinigami!" Mann said, sticking his tongue out. Shin grabbed it, his tongue, and pressed down hard with his fingers, forcing Mann to wince and stumble in pain.

"I've killed plenty of men with their shikai active" Shin explained. Then, for laughs, Shin reeled up his leg and kicked Mann in the face. He didn't roll back, but his back did bend in response to the hit. Shin wasted no time and used the force of his stomping foot to bring his sword around using his entire body's energy. Mann looked down over his nose and, angrily, brought his huge weapon up in a flash to block Shin's sword. The swing was powerful enough to gust up the remaining dust on the ground, which Shin then flashed through.

"Yeah" Mann growled into the dust, aware that Shin had retreated. "Are you gloating about that?"

"No" Shin said from no distinguishable place. "You shouldn't trust in yourself based on past battles when fighting someone new, is all. I'm not counting on anything but what's happening right now."

"That's pretty reckless" Mann pointed out. Shin laughed at the irony as the dust faded away. Shin was nowhere. Mann suddenly felt a huge buildup of pressure coming down on him. Instinctively, Mann swung his paddle overhead, catching Shin's drop-stab and giving him a platform with which to continually press down from above on.

"I disagree" Shin said. "You're the reckless one here. You only trust your sword to fight for you, rather than trusting in your own skill and strength. It's a troublesome habit that you've formed." Mann, tired of Shin's preaching, rebelled against the pressure and pushes his sword up, shooting Shin up like a piston. While he was impressed, Shin kept himself on guard. Mann shook off the pressure, roared with a berserk, twisted face and started to swing his sword at the air-borne Shin.

_Hell no! _Shin thought. _He can't be that reckless!_ But he was. Mann yelled as he twirled the massive weapon overhead, building speed, and tossed it at Shin. Shin dodged by darting downward, then took the chance and dashed forward with his sword in a thrusting position.

"HaaaaAAAAH!!!" Shin bellowed. Mann took a stumble backwards and let Shin pierce him. His sword loudly continued to whoosh through the air. "You're pretty tricky for a mindless moron" Shin said. He pulled out his sword and crouched down.

"Thanks" Mann said. Shin jumped up just as the huge sword came ripping through the air into Mann's hand again. It's weight destroyed the ground where Mann let it hit, and Shin landed far away with his sword pointed forward and his other hand ready to clutch it. "Oh?" Mann grunted, tilting his head back over his shoulder, glaring Shin down with the corner of his eye. "So now you're going to be serious with me?"

"...possibly..." Shin replied.

"Kehehehe" Mann laughed, turning around. He had a dying look on his face that was expertly covered by his manic smile and wide eyes that he kept skyward, staring Shin down under his nose. "With two arms, your strength will skyrocket, right? Is that what you do instead of release your sword? You just fight two-handed? How entertaining! This will be quite the spectacle!"

"You've never been cut like that before, have you?" Shin asked. Mann chuckled and lowered his head, bringing his own sword up with only one hand high over his head.

"Come at me with as many hands as you like, Shin...Kenpachi was it?" Mann offered.

"How nice" Shin said, gripping his sword at the top of the handle with his right hand and setting it pointing up near his hip level. "I'll stick with two..."

* * *

"Shoot!" Suichi ordered. "Haganerensa!" The chain shot out like lightning at Odo, but in the end missed its target. The creepy, lanky assassin was too fast for Suichi to hit. Many rooftops were now in shambled ruin over their fighting which they refused to let drop to the ground.

"Pathetic!" Odo mocked. "You'll be no match for me once I release my-" Suichi flash-stepped behind him, arm reeled back.

"Shoot!" Suichi shouted. Again he missed, though much more narrowly this time. Odo couldn't flash away that time, and had to simply flip out of the way to the side. Suichi's face had no signs of disappointment at all. No fear and no anger from missing. "Catch!" The chain on his arm had curved at its end to a hook and reeled in as quick as it shot. Suichi caught Odo with the chain, let him get close enough, then abandoned using his sword further, placing his feet on Odo's stomach and falling backwards. Suichi waited for his back to contact a solid surface, then let the gravity wrap the idle chain around Odo.

"_**Mizuashinami!**_" Suichi incanted. With Odo tethered to him and his full weight pointed floor-ward, Suichi;s legs initiated a blinding kick sequence. Odo's body twitched wildly at each light-speed kick that Suichi delivered. The attack progressed only until Suichi became even more apathetic than when the attack started and he delivered one final double-leg kick that arched him up onto his shoulders and sent Odo flying from his chain grip. Suichi picked himself up.

"As an assassin" Suichi lectured, "your most important mental aspect must be your 'what if' discernibility." Odo finally came crashing into and through a house roof. Suichi kept preaching, knowing full well that the disturbed man could hear him. "For example, what if I must kill a man in public. More specifically, what if he's an accomplished fighter? The obvious response is to duel him, but not with ones sword. Not knowing a man's spiritual limit in a sword fight is dangerous. Therefore, a hand-to-hand fight would be necessary. Then what? Break his neck? No. An assassination must always look like an accident, even if it is in secret. The life of an assassin is one devoted to absolute secrecy in movement and life..."

"You say that" Odo growled loudly, knowing Suichi's hearing wasn't as good as his, "and yet you arrived here with two other men. Are they your comrades? Should an assassin not live a life of secrecy like you say? Does secrecy not include solitude and total aloneness?"

"Of course not" Suichi answered. His answer had struck a deep-rooted nerve with the creepy phantom that faced him down. "My friends have no idea how much power I really have, nor how much knowledge I actually can teach them. That's how we work together. What I keep from them is what they find out on their own in time, and even then I'll grow stronger with them without them knowing. Living in secret while also living publicly, that is the truest challenge that separates the novices from the artisans of assassination!"

Suddenly, not taking any chance to let his opponent catch his breath, Suichi flashed forward. His arm was drawn far back with the stabbing point out and firm from his middle finger. As his arm came swooping in for the killing blow, Odo caught it and laxly tossed him across the street. Suichi landed fine and looked back. Odo sighed a heavy sigh and held up his sword. The air became uneasy.

_He's releasing!_ Suichi realized.

"...it seems we were destined to meet, fellow assassin" Odo said, gazing at his sword. He analytically turned it about, looking at all its sides and edges carefully. "Should either of us escape this encounter, I believe we have some valuable things to learn. I have my entire life to reconcile and make up...and you will learn a new 'what if' scenario."

"What would that be?" Suichi asked.

"What if I am about to die...?" Odo responded. Suichi could feel the killing intent from across the street, the pressure that pierced through him like millions of needles. "**Deliver me to the world of silk and slime...**_**Biancorango**_**"** Odo opened a flap in his black mask through which he ate his sword. With the sword now inside his body, the energy released in a horrible way.

* * *

In the Golden Age of Shinigami power, there are many different kinds of releases for swords. They can range from the mundane and almost impractical to the complex and godlike. Some are mere augmentations like that of Mann, some are purely different forms like Suichi's. But Odo is a special case, for in this period of time before the great escalation of Hollow powers, there are shinigami who have access to the rarest and most dangerous form of shikai. The 'Transformation' type, allowing them access to an entirely new physical form.

Only as a shikai, Odo's release was monstrous. His lanky arms elongated twice the length of his own body, and all his black wrapping became bleach-white. Gnarled teeth grew out from where Suichi had seen his mouth and an acrid-looking tongue whipped about, spreading venomous saliva around the air. Two hideous extensions that came from Odo's ribs jutted out, equal in length to his augmented arms, only these bony growths ended in spikes instead of hands. His abdomen elongated as well and his legs, for the most part, were absorbed into the rest of his body. Suichi was looking now not at an assassin or even a shinigami, but some kind of horrible monster.

"Scared, assassin?" Odo growled in a voice recognizably his but distantly alien in speech. Suichi shook off the shock and adapted his tired, jaded expression once more.

"Nope" Suichi responded. "Shin and Hoji are the only ones right now that scare me..."

* * *

Habahioriken: Big Steel Paddle

Mizuashinami: Water Step (Ashi also means 'leg' and nami means 'wave'. "Water Leg Wave"...Water Step is better.)

Biancorango: Italian for 'White Spider'


	39. Hoji versus Norbel

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"Is that so?" Norbel said. "That's quite a troublesome story."

"Yeah" Hoji said. "It's been one thing after another..." As hard as Hoji wanted to try, the promise of booze was to great for him to properly fight against. After only a few lackluster swings earlier, Hoji decided to ignore the nagging in his head and drink until there wasn't any temptation anymore. "You got any meat to eat this with?"

"Meat and wine don't mix" Norrbel said, "but if you insist then I shall fetch it." Norbel got up and left for a moment, reappearing instantly through the trees with a plate of cooked meat. Hoji stared at him analytically as he set the tray down and sat back in his dignified seat across from Hoji. "...what?"

"You sword's in its sheathe" Hoji noted "but you moved through that forest instantly. Like time didn't exist to you..." Norbel just nodded and sipped from his glass, acting profoundly ignorant of his enemy's intentions. "This forest is rigged with some weird magic, ain't it?"

"'Ain't' is not a word" Norbel patronized. "You're correct, though. I can see that you have quite the grasp on kido and other forms of spiritual magics."

"Indeed" Hoji said, his attempt at being equally sophisticated with meat sloppily stuffed into his face. "It won't help you that much, though. I'm a real monster when it comes to fighting."

"I'm quite sure" Norbel humored.

"You're not afraid?" Hoji asked. His enemy just sipped more wine. "I've killed men like you before."

"Oh?" Norbel grunted. "Do tell."

"you're pretty full of yourself" Hoji said, "although not without good reason, I'm sure. You're strong enough, that's sure, but ego isn't always such a great thing."

"Well" Norbel began, "you seem fairly arrogant as well. Insulting me as you drink my own wine is quite the hubris-driven thing to do, methinks." Hoji finished the last of the meat and sake, then leaned back and glared Norbel down as he continued. "There's no real way to predict how this fight will play out. If you do manage to see around my magic and other so called trickery, feel free to exploit it."

"I intend to" Hoji said, "but I am, above all things, a warrior. I won't use dirty tricks to win this fight, just my sword and my muscles."

"Really?" Norbel said with disbelief. "I find it hard to believe that you can really stand up to me with those little sticks hanging from you shoulders."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He leaned his chin onto his fist and grinned a steely grin. "Your jokes are useless on me. Once I see someone worth killing, everything else takes a backseat. I'm not losing to you, prissy boy. Face it!"

"Hmm" Norbel hummed with a slight sense of seriousness. "You may be right. Only a real warrior would bother to walk around of his own accord with a head that bald." Hoji's angry vein clicked on. "Honestly, if I shaved _my_ hair for only a partial boost of speed, I'd turn myself into the asylum!"

"I'M NOT BALD, GODAMMIT!" Hoji roared. He took his tight pigtail and held it in front of Norbel to see for his own eyes. "See? SEEEEEEEE!? I have hair, you ass-head!"

"Calm down!" Norbel said, getting very uncomfortable very quickly. "I see it, it's nice, just calm down!"

* * *

One calming sit down later, Hoji and Norbel were ready to face off in the small clearing. Hoji took his sword in revers grip at his side. His right leg was straight forward and his left was bent behind in respect to his opponent. His free, left hand was drawn up in a quasi-martial arts pose with his hand calmly palm down. His whole body slanted with his forward leg and his sword pointed up in its reverse grip. Norbel held his sword out in front like a fencer, with his other hand at face level away from his body and his feet together.

_One of us is a better fighter than the other_ Hoji said sing-song in his head. _Regardless what tricks he can pull here, I can still overpower him now that I know what he can do..._

A second or two passed. The crashing and powerful blasts from outside echoed weakly up to the roof of the tower. Then an explosion occurred in the more local area. Norbel caught Hoji's charge with his sword. Hoji's whole body was thrown into the swing and sent his opponent through the trees. Hoji upped his guard drastically, knowing that an attack could come from anywhere at any time now. However, Norbel just walked casually out behind Hoji and raised his sword up again.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed again. He held his sword in normal, 'offense' grip and swung with enough force to send his whole body in a full spin. Norbel's sword went flying to his side but stayed in his hand. Then, as Hoji planted his feet on solid ground again, his sword came around again in its continuous circle path and swung heavily down. Norbel anticipated the danger and jumped out of the way, riding the current of terrible energy up into the highest reaches of the walled garden.

"From up here" Norbel said, "I can definitely get an upper hand! Hohoho! I made a joke!" As he laughed at his own arrogance, Hoji was already a step ahead of him.

"_Senkou no Shikyou!_" Hoji shot his had forward and let the red lightning rip through the air. It impacted on Norbel and sent him smoldering down through the air into the curious forest. A nagging pull in Hoji's head wanted him to enter to the dreaded magic garden, but his body held fast with his guarding grip equipped. "Where now, blondy?" Hoji growled tauntingly. A myriad of bright flashes came from all directions. Flying daggers were imminent, at this many with that much force would shatter Hoji's sword if not just tear apart his entire body.

"Hohoho!" Norbel laughed from the forest. "**Spread across the skies, **_**Tobimure!**_" His shikai took the form of throwing daggers that came into existence fluttering and spinning in the air before him. A whole armory worth of sharp, powerful knives that could pierce through nearly anything and rend apart anyone's body. "Let's see you survive that, you maniac man!"

"I told you" Hoji said from behind, "I'm a monster." Norbel frightfully turned around and saw Hoji sprawled out on a tree limb behind him. He was apathetically lounging back with his sword still tight in hand and hanging down. Norbel's noble exterior quickly faded and left a melted mess all over his face that resembled pure shock and confusion, complete with twitching eyelid.

"How...?" Norbel so elegantly asked.

"Easily" Hoji said, hopping down. "You know that ceaseless nagging that you get sometimes when you fight?" Norbel didn't respond. He just stood shock still, pointing a shaky finger at Hoji. "Well, I actually listened to it for once. It told me ti jump, then to fall just beyond the brush line and I was a few trees over back there. You know, I'm a little disappointed in this so-called magic forest. I thought every step would teleport you somewhere else, but it's just that one small area."

Norbel finally shook off the initial shock and faced Hoji down with a serious face again. "So, you've also figured out my true shikai as well?" he asked. Hoji paused for a bit, then shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, come on!" Norbel shouted.

* * *

Now that the tables had turned and his tricks were discovered, Norbel was in a spot. His knives were back, but he had to incant and release his sword again to use them successively, and with the monster lethargically staring him down just a yard away, he felt that he wouldn't succeed if he tried.

"I suppose our battle" Norbel began "has degenerated into a brutish sword fight after all."

Hoji tilted his head until it cracked and gave an apathetic "yup" in response. He rested his sword up on his shoulder and waited for something to happen from his opponent. Any subtle movement or glinting in his eye would give Hoji a chance to move as well, but nothing happened. Now that his main trick was dispelled, it seemed that Norbel had lost his will to fight. "You gonna fight at all?"

"But of course" Norbel said. "I'm not the same kind of fighter that you are. I'm a strategist. I don't just run forward swinging like a blind idiot, I calculate and plan before moving."

"Whatever" Hoji said. He drew his sword up high, which Norbel prepared to block over his head, and then he threw the sword at Norbel. It purposely sailed past hi, split a tree in half and rested lodged up to the hilt in another. "Let's make this a bit more interesting" Hoji offered. Norbel curiously lowered his weapon. "One free shot, and that's it. To make it a bit fair, I won't use my sword for my hit, and I'll tell you where I'm hitting you."

"Ho!" Norbel scoffed. "Are you so very sure of yourself that you would offer me a perfect chance to kill you here and now? Very well." Norbel twirled his sword around and drew it behind him at head level, an obvious thrusting pose. Hoji just crossed his arms and waited for the blow with a dark glower. Norbel dashed forward, sword ready, and stabbed. At the last possible second, Hoji's eyes went wide and a horrible pressure came from all sides. Hoji's aura had lifted and pushed the sword away from his head and let it glide past him. Norbel didn't wait for his body to hit against Hoji's and pulled back to his previous position, sheathing his sword in mid-air. He had to catch his breath from the immense pressure.

"Impressive" Norbel said, holding his terror to himself. Hoji smirked and scoffed at once. "Very well then, what shall you do?"

"A punch in the face" Hoji said, raising up his fist.

"That's it?" Norbel said. "Well...I've taken some serious injuries before. I suppose getting a little mark on my cheek to prove my sportiness will suffice. Fair enough. Come at me!" Norbel then took a stand with his fists on his hips and his legs firmly open to whatever blow Hoji had in mind.

"I intend to" Hoji growled. He drew back his fist for a hearty smash in his enemy's face and started running with a crouch. He would obviously do another semi-spinning, corckscrew attack like his vicious sword swing earlier. Norbel didn't worry. His training allowed him lightning-quick drawing skill. As soon as that fist started moving he would raise up his sword from the guard and let Hoji destroy his own hand. As Hoji ran forward, he started shouting with great animosity.

"PUNCH IN THAAA~~~" he roared. Norbel kept his smirk strong and adamant up until Hoji was a mere foot away from him. Then, with thunderous, sky-splitting force, Hoji finished with a quick and arrogant roar of "**FACE!!!**" and kicked Norbel in the crotch. It was a horrible, bone cracking kind of kick that you don't think you can survive if it goes between your legs, and Norbel had received all of it without any premonition or guard. His eyes bulged as time itself started to slow. The field goal, as it were, was perfect. When time resumed, Norbel fell to the ground writhing with high pitched shrieks in terrible pain. Meanwhile, Hoji casually paced over to his sword and retrieved it from its tree holster and placed it upon his shoulder.

"You...bastard...!" Norbel squeaked. Hoji turned an increment in his direction, not letting the shade from his devious brow give way to light. "That wasn't a punch at all!!!" There was a brief silence from Hoji as he prepared his rebuttal.

"Oh!?" Hoji grunted with fake surprise, tilting his head skyward and smiling a goofy smile. "You're right! It wasn't! GAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"You incomprehe...hensible jack-ass!" Norbel squealed, still holding his most-likely broken groin as Hoji reeled back and laughed mockingly. Then, Hoji's laughter trailed off at last into a long sigh.

"Alright" Hoji said, clapping his hands with his sword in the crease of his inner-elbow, "enough screwing around. Get up. Time to die."

"GAH!" Norbel exclaimed. Hoji's monstrous reputation wasn't just all bluster and noise, for he truly was a cruel monster when fighting. He takes no prisoners and has no mercy for his enemies, he is Hoji Araijin, the fierce warrior that fights by the king of death, Shin Kenpachi! "I hate you!!!" Norbel growled in a comically high-pitched guttural growl.

* * *

Tobimure: Bird Flock


	40. The Coming Rain

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin and Mann fought on, shaking the foundation of the crater city. With Mann's super powerful sword, his swings created powerful blasts of wind. With Shin using both hands on his normal sword, he was able to counter the wind waves with his own much more precise slivers of power. Shin still worked to overwork Mann's power while Mann still worked to overpower Shin. Despite the movement, the chaos, and the glaring flashes of black lightning from their swords, the warriors were at a stalemate.

"Is this your limit, shinigami Shin?" Mann growled above the deafening swings of his sword. Shin continued to leap away from the long swings and blocked the less powerful thrusts.

"I don't have a limit!" Shin answered, pushing the sword away. Mann stumbled backwards, having his huge weapon pushed back with his arms at head level and he saw Shin jump up onto the steely paddle. Mann didn't let Shin keep his foothold and moved the sword before Shin started forward. The sword slowly drifted downward as Shin paced, straight-backed and glaring through the black shadow of his brow, down the sword.

_His pressure!_ Mann realized. _He's using his pressure to stay on the blade!_ With this information, Mann took a drastic step to avoid Shin's skillful cutting and thrusted his sword out hard, shaking Shin and forcing him to stumble a step.

"HA!" Mann grunted. "You're finished!" Mann drew in his blade with great swiftness and drew back his other arm to punch Shin square in the gut. Shin didn't care for the primitive man's strategy, so he ducked under his huge fist that shot up into the sky by doing a split. Then, with a stab, Shin's sword went through Mann's shoulder and pierced through the whole, hard muscle. In the stunning sensation of being cut again, Mann froze up and allowed Shin to escape while his injured sword arm went limp and his tremendous sword crashed to the ground.

"Fighting isn't a moron's sport" Shin said, taking his sword in both hands at his waist. "You have to be able to predict the unpredictable, move into the unmovable. In a fight, anything goes, and the regular rules of reality must sometimes be broken..."

"Oh?" Mann lowed, leaning back and swallowing his spit. "Then why don't you just call down some lightning to strike me? Why don't you open up the ground and let me fall into the earth?"

"Oh, I can't do any of that" Shin admitted, "but I'm working on it."

"Good for you" Mann gutturally congratulated. Shin went back into his serious mode and continued to lay the truth into his barbaric opponent.

"What I mean is that you can't be tethered to reality" Shin explained. "You have to release you mind and open your senses in ways that are otherwise foolish. Become aware of the slightest shifting blade of grass and act in tune with your surroundings. Ignore whatever pain is coming your way and find a path through the clouded battleground that leads right to your enemy's heart..."

"Hmm..." Mann growled thoughtfully. Mann just realized that his opponent had perfectly measured his own healing capabilities, as Mann's shoulder and other wounds were completely healed. "I'll be sure to take that to heart in my next great battle." Mann said.

"Oh, you won't get to" Shin announced, changing his position. He stood upright, keeping his sword at his hip and pointed up at Mann's face. "I'm killing you, even if I break myself along with my limits." Mann's grin lowered and his brow furrowed with newfound anger. Shin's energy started to spike, and Mann attempted to strain his body and throw up his own field of spirit. Of course the obvious fact remained: Shin's power daunted Mann's.

* * *

Across town, Suichi struggled in his fight with Odo. That being said, it had quickly become much less of a fight for supremacy and more of a fight for survival. Suichi implemented his wild agility honed from years of practice in the field to escape the grasp of the demoniacally transfigured Odo. Neither of their assassin pride allowed them to take the fight on street level, and Odo had the high ground advantage.

"_**Spiedo Cannone!"**_ Odo roared. His monstrous maw opened up, keeping his ninja mask covering his face the whole time, and out he spat a light-fast wad of silk. Suichi flew away across the street and watched as the wad exploded in a sticky webbing all over the rooftops. Odo worked his long limbs to turn and aim at Suichi again, who was none to eager to try and dodge the same attack again.

"Haganerensa," he started, "Aim!" At his command, the chain tip perked up and extended out from his finger. Suichi jumped up high and drew back his arm without letting his forearm move. "Shoot!" she incanted. With a punch the chain extended and latched into a stone roof. "Reload!" With the chain lodged into the roof, Suichi started flying through the air.

"_Spideo Cannone!_" Odo repeated, launching a spit wad through the air that screeched past Suichi. The assassin proper landed soft on the bare rooftop. He yanked the chain back out and glanced over at the monster with the bone-white arms and extra, spiked legs. He heard the feint incantation and sped off again, dodging the web explosion once again.

"This is ridiculous" Suichi said. "I need to get back on the offensive! No matter where I go, "I'm open for punishment..." Suichi took a moment to observe his surroundings and saw an perfect spot. Taking no time to aim, he fired his chain from the hip and hit his mark, slicing away the drooping awn of webbing that extended from one high roof to a lower one and he let his weapon carry him over.

"Like that will work!" Odo shouted. "Run and hide as you wish, my webs of steel will still find you and reel you into my mouth! _Spideo Cannone!_" Predicting Suichi's route, Odo fired his wad where Suichi was about to pass by, attempting to catch him in the air. Suichi, having not properly incanted his weapon's ability, was traveling slow enough for his hideous opponent to track. In a desperate flight of reflex, Suichi pulled on his chain and barely dodged the ball once more, allowing it to explode on the already webbed roof and leaving Suichi's fate unknown.

"Good" Suichi told himself. "My timing was perfect after all." He sat and panted, hearing the continuous incantations and booms of Odo's disgusting ability. The webs he cut with his chain at the distance opened up a hole in the webs just large enough for Suichi to pass through, and because the webs only built up upon themselves he had his own little hovel to rest and plan out his own attack while Odo continued to layer his impromptu den.

"Little bug..." Odo lowed across the barren town. No response. He knew Suichi was hiding now, or he had run away, but he couldn't smell him. "Oh, little bug? Don't make me paranoid..." Still, only the wind and distant sounds of battle across the crater came to him. "I'm coming for you..." With his giant, bony new limbs from his sword-invoked transformation, he made his way across the street and into the block covered entirely in a hill of steel webs.

"Boo" Suichi shouted from behind. By the time Odo could turn himself around the whole way, Suichi was able to slice at each of his joints and ligaments to slow and hamstring him into submission. When he did catch a glance of the puny assassin, he was clinging to his chain, upside-down.

"How...!?" Odo growled. Suichi's chain was in fact extended in a huge arc from a nearby house he broke into through the walls and ended in him hanging on by the knees and hands as the chain stayed perfectly still in the air.

"I dunno" Suichi replied. "Magic?" Odo's eyes visibly drew wide open under his veil. Suichi's chain snapped back into his arm as it drew back and he made another punch at nearly point-blank range.

* * *

"Let's go!" Hoji shouted. He blasted forward and tackled Norbel right in his gut, not allowing him the luxury of recovering from his deadly ball blow. Then, as he passed by, he brought his sword behind him with a swing that missed the nimble coward who jumped away.

"You're a maniac!" Norbel shouted.

"Thank you!" Hoji said, turning mid dash and vanishing into the woods.

"I'm not letting you get the upper hand!" Norbel announced. He took his sword, swiftly incanted it into shikai and let the knives fly and scatter around. Once Norbel reached the ground, he held up his hand and his sword materialized in his palm again. Everything had been cut, and no matter where Hoji may have hid, he must have gotten hit somewhere.

"Tch!" sneered Hoji from behind. He fell from the sky with his knees bent and sword bearing overhead. "You're an idiot! I just jumped over you!"

"Gah!" Norbel gasped. He brought up his sword to block as Hoji made his down swing. Then, at the last second, released it and let Hoji's sword sail straight through the spinning knives. "I hope this hurts you!" Hoji reeled back with a startled look and pulled his sword in to block. "_Hirogari!_" At his command, the knives formed a circle in front of him and blasted out in a wide spray. Hoji twirled his sword at the proper time and deflected a good many of them, but he still got cut along his sword arm and the edges of his torso.

"Tch" Hoji lowed. Once the knives were gone, he sprang forward with his sword at face level and stabbed at Norbel, who retreated into the air and prepared to fire at Hoji once again. Hoji vanished once more, so Norbel released his sword and spun around in the air, firing his knives upwards into the empty sky. "You think I'm an idiot!?" Hoji shouted. Norbel spun around again and saw Hoji on the ground, sword pointed up, waiting for Norbel to fall and impale himself. "I'm not giving you an inch to fight with! From now on, you'll never be able to predict me..."

"Really!?" Norbel shouted. His sword came back and he let himself fall, attempting to simply hit Hoji's sword away and land on his bald head, but Hoji stuck to his word. Instead of jumping up to intercept him, he dashed away, cut down the branch of a tree and kicked it into Norbel's mid section, sending him saulting to the ground with a thud. Then he dove from the sky with his sword pointed down at Norbel's heart again.

"NEVER!" Hoji roared. Norbel scrambled to get away and dodged by rolling at the last second. The impact shattered the fake bedrock and broke a hole down to the ruined floor of the tower below. "You're not gonna get to run for long...Norby" Hoji taunted. Norbel stood up in the forest and became instantly worried. "Before our fight's over, I'm gonna level this tower with your own damn face!"

"How...quaint" Norbel said, running out of elegant words to use for the situation. "I doubt you'll get such a chance..."

"Oh" Hoji growled, taking a reverse grip on his sword and leaning forward in a sprint position with his tongue hanging out, "I'm a man of my word..."

* * *

Spiedo Cannone : Spit Cannon (Italian)

Hirogari : Spread


	41. Come Pouring Down

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin and Mann stared each other down, then broke it when Shin darted ahead. His pressure took down Mann's, stunning him for only a fraction of a second. That fraction was enough, as Mann couldn't elevate his sword high enough to hit Shin or block his whole overhead helm-breaker. The sword went into Mann's right shoulder, barely a scratch to Mann. With the force balanced again, Mann grunted and kicked Shin away.

"Huuh" Mann lowed. He started running forward, sword drawn behind him with both strong hands. Shin held his ground and tightened his grip to block, but he kept his back and arms relaxed in case he had to dodge. Mann anticipated Shin's guard and discarded his sword to surprise Shin. It didn't work. "You can't block my body, Kenpachi!" Mann roared.

"Swords don't block bodies" Shin said, "they cut them." Mann changed his pace from a run to a jump and instantly grappled Shin around the waist. Before Shin was off the ground he reeled up his sword and butted Mann's spine. They both flew limply into a nearby house, blasting it into ruins. Mann had to crawl away from the stunning blow while Shin dug himself out of the rubble.

"Crap" Shin said, panting heavily. "That knocked the air out of my lungs. I can't breath right..." He saw Mann stand up with his sword a distance away and started down the crumbling hill. "He's getting worse and worse for me to defend against. I have to get on the offensive and stay there for a while, break him with power!"

"Raahhhh..." Mann growled. His voice sounded very strained and tired, like a tired groan from a monster or a Hollow. "It's useless, isn't it? To convince you that this battle is over already?"

"What do you mean?" Shin said.

"That was your all" Mann explained, "and I'm still standing quite firm. You don't have any more fancy sword techniques or pressure traps to lure me into."

"Sure I do" Shin said, bringing a scowl to Mann's face. "I'm serious about my fighting. I know that my sword and even my skills alone can't win every war I get in. I have my own reserves of magic to use on brutes like you..." Shin took a step forward and held his sword in a traditional, tight stance. It didn't look like the serious pose of a murderer, but the calculated stance of a professional duelist who has mastered his own supreme style. Such was Shin, although Mann refused to acknowledge him like that.

_What's he planning?_ Mann asked himself. Shin started forward in a light dash with his sword pointing straight up, parallel with his chest.

"_**Boko no...**_" Shin began. Mann took his huge sword in one hand and prepared to swipe away whatever technique came his way. Suddenly, a high vibration of pressure rang out. This pressure first pressed down, then out, then lingered without any force as a curious mist around both of them. "_**GAIKOTSU!!!**_" Shin whirled his hips around and created four afterimages of himself from the waist up, Mann's eyes shot open as the four-fold Shin rushed at him, each with their own very real sword. Once in range of Mann's arm, the Shins separated and en circled him from each side.

"What is this!?" Mann shouted.

"This is death!" the Shins all shouted at once. One attacked and Mann dodged. He went right into another attack which he blocked, then another came from the side that he grabbed and another from the front that stabbed him through the stomach. Attack after attack, rapidly coming like streaks of sunlight through a windy forest. The force of each sword was real enough for Mann to start retreating in full speed, and each Shin's face had that same glaze of apathy that truly frightened any man that faced it.

"How is this remotely possible!?" Mann shouted. "To have you pressure spread out like this is one thing, but multiplication!?"

"Sorry" the Shins said between attacks, "well, not really. This is just the gap of our strength."

"Grr, fool..." Mann growled furiously. "The only gap in our strength is that you have NONE compared to me!!!"

"I agree" Shin said, now from above. Mann's eyes went wide with fear. "The gap lies within 'skill' and 'spirit'. Your strength is better...but strong as you are, you're not my competition right now..." Mann finally worked up the gall to look up and saw Shin, standing above him in the air with his arms crossed. "Ready to face oblivion?" Shin asked. Mann started to shiver. The copy Shin's disappeared and the real Shin, with sword high over head and all muscles building to release their strength at once, started falling.

"Impossible!" Mann growled. His arms wouldn't respond to his brain, and his sword could not move up to meet Shin's coming blade.

"_**Dai-Sora...**_" Shin incanted. Mann just stood, back bent and staring up, at the falling star of death dressed in black. _**"KIRETSU!!!" **_Shin's entire body powered his swing, which tore through Mann's skin so harshly that his sternum and parts of his ribcage were plainly visible. The blood flow started soon thereafter...

* * *

Odo, the failed assassin, now lay on the ground twitching as Suichi surgically removed the invoked sword within his gut.

"What a weird ability" Suichi pointed out, pushing his chain down further. Through the vibrations of his chain, he could feel through the fleshy stomach and other innards of Odo and found his sword, lodged into his lower intestines. "What kind of craziness requires you to eat your own blade."

"It's not so bad" Odo said, having given up on moving with all eight of his legs split at the joint. "After the initial fear of missing the trachea, you can just let the sword slip down carefully into your body. Oh," Odo now started with a more heinous and sinister tone than before, "and I will murder you for humiliating me!!!"

"You're a strange one" Suichi said. Suddenly, a metallic clink from within. With but the minor twitch of Suichi middle finger, the chain coiled around the handle of the blade and firmly grasped it. Then, with a terrible yank, the sword and chain came out of Odo's body. "You alright?" Suichi asked. "I didn't nick anything vital, did I?"

"No" Odo coughed. His body quickly morphed back into his original, tattered form. His elbows and knees were slashed and serrated down to the scared and scraped bones that Suichi had cut into. "I will be fine within a month or more...then you will die..."

"Fair enough" Suichi said, throwing his sword down into the ground. Odo's bloody lips exposed his gnarly teeth in anger as Suichi started walking away. Totally apathetic to Odo's pain, Suichi deactivated his sword and began to sheathe it behind him. Odo gathered his own, arcane strength, and raised up his head.

"Don't be so cocky" Odo growled. "You should know, master assassin, that we can't be trusted!" Odo opened his mouth wide and started to produce a glowing energy from deep within his throat. "_**Hitama!**_" The energy came out with the sound of his spell in the form of a flaming, spinning ball of crackling flames. The blast knocked Suichi's back to the point of breaking and singed apart his under-armor tank. Odo glared with a disgusting grin down the street at his defeated foe's body, but it wasn't there to be seen. His assassin's garb and shinigami pants flamed, but no body was there to perish with it.

"You're totally right" Suichi said from Odo's blind side. With his short blade unsheathed, Suichi made a short jump in the air and flipped onto Odo's gut, using his own sword as a sort of vaulting pole to pierce into the ground. Odo screamed bloody murder before losing his energy at last. "We assassins can never be trusted." Suichi stomped on Odo's chest, drew out his blade, and raised it high over head.

Blood splattered on the houses to the right. Suichi got up, now wearing his black loincloth from under his pants and left, holding Odo's pants in his hand over shoulder. "They're a size or eight too big for me" Suichi figured, "but I'd rather have something to wear around here. Anyway, it's no good right now. Shin and Hoji are still fighting and they both seem to be winning. My only task is to find the General and eliminate him, but my instincts are telling me his isn't here...pity."

"Hey you!" a gruff voice called from behind, near Odo's corpse. Suichi turned around and saw a small militia of quivering men wielding swords poised at the tired looking assassin. "You...you killed lord Odo, didn't you?"

"Well, I decapitated him" Suichi admitted. "The headlessness is what really did him in, I just helped."

"You bastard!" the same man called out. "We can't forgive you for this! He was like a brother to us all! A goddamn brother!" The militia roared angrily and started running at Suichi. With his keen mind, Suichi used Odo's pants as a screen and flipped over the ranks, landing on a man's head with his hands and twisting his neck backwards.

"You're about as thick as me" Suichi said to the sturdy corpse. "Don't mind if I steal from you quickly..."

"He got Yobu!" one of the men yelled. Suichi rolled underneath the dead man as he fell and stole his clothes. Yobu, the unfortunate soul, fell limp to the ground groaning and gurgling.

"He's not dead" Suichi said, fitting his robe and tightening his new belt. Then he drew out his newly holstered sword and armed himself to face down the surrounding enemies. "He sure as hell can't move again, but he's alive..."

"You bastard!" the apparent, single-voiced leader shouted. "You would dare take a warrior's pride by rendering him dumb and immobile before killing him!? You're a sick one!"

"I'm an assassin" Suichi explained heartlessly. "That guy wasn't on my list, but he was in my way. Clean work is my business." His lethargic grin extended into a downright evil smile as the desperate men rushed in with eyes afire.

* * *

"Prepare," Hoji growled at Norbel, "for PAIN! WWRAAAAGGGHHHH!!!" Hoji's mad rush with his sword drawn far back behind him ended only a step from Norbel's range. Predicting his strategy, Hoji slinked off to the side and let him incant his sword and fire a missed shot. Then, taking a jumping step back into place, Hoji delivered a rock-solid elbow into Norbel's face. Norbel's arm blocked it, but he was still sent over himself and into the brush. "Yo! Come on out!" Hoji roared.

"Huuu..." Norbel breathed. His body was nearly broken from Hoji's unpredictable, endless onslaught of terrible attacks. His sword was used minimally and his fighting seemed to center more on trickery and generally desperate attacks. "He fights like he's losing..." Norbel told himself. "If I don't start doing the same, I may lose my life. No matter, for my next strategum shall succeed brilliantly!"

"Found you!" Hoji playfully growled from behind. Norbel glanced over and saw him wielding his sword in a reversed, impaling motion from the branch above. Grabbing the limb only with his toes, Hoji swung down with his sword stabbing behind his head. Norbel dodged in time and retreated into a topiary walkway. He could hear Hoji running at him, so he unsheathed his sword and threw it up in front of him. It turned to knives once more.

"I've got you!" Norbel exclaimed.

"Tch" Hoji said. "This attack's getting weak." Norbel, regardless of Hoji's criticism, swung his hand and shot out his knives. Hoji twirled his sword around with his strong right arm like a shield, crouching behind it very low to the ground, and didn't get scratched once. Hoji picked up, dashing forward with a push from both arms, and had both arms held back with his sword in reverse grip. "Time to die!" he screamed. Norbel just smiled.

"_Tobimure_" he politely asked, "_**Gattai!**_" He snapped his fingers and all the knives wrenched themselves from the trees and rocks they were pinned in. Hoji understood the direness of his situation, as well as the hopelessness of it. From every side, from a conic area that he was far to deep in to escape, the knives were coming.

_I have to block them!_ He told himself. Hoji took one last step and went on his mixed agenda of offense and defense. First, his last step made him fly with extra speed and he used his strong back muscles to tackle Norbel away. Then, facing the coming flock of knives, he started manically spinning and twirling his sword in front of him. Norbel pushed away and jumped to the side, and all the knives changed their direction as well. Hoji's guard only blocked the ones that would hit him head on, and so his chest was torn and slashed to hell by the sideways knives that flew through his guard.

"The difference between is us simple" Norbel explained. All his knives converged at last into his whole, normal sword, and there was a fine streak of blood across the blade. Hoji hit the ground on his arms, refusing to let his lacerated chest get contaminated with the dirt and dust on the ground. "Namely, you are simple and I am not. If you are a genius with your sword, then I am a god with mine! I have hidden at least 80% of my abilities up until now! Just wait till you see everything I can do with this sword of mine!"

"Tch" Hoji grunted, standing up at last. His blood came streaming out of him and his vision blurred. "You're all talk" Hoji growled. "Just show me this power so I can let it blow up in your damn face, already..."

"Fine then" Norbel haughtily said. "_Tobimure!_ Show this commoner our power!" His sword released, from what Hoji could make out in his blurry vision, and the energy swirled.

* * *

Boko no Gaikotsu : Hollow Skeleton  
Dai-Sora Kiretsu : Great Sky Fissure (Dai is a prefix meaning 'great' or 'respectable' when used with other titles)  
Hitama : Fire Ball  
Gattai : Unite


	42. The Bloody End

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Now it was Suichi's turn to fight, a position he was uncomfortable with in his new duds. _Okay, it's just like regular sparring with Shin...but much much easier. And I most likely won't die if I don't fight exactly like them. Great._

"Die, assassin!" the group leader shouted. He made a slice and hit air. Suichi was ducked under the entire group, sprinting away under and through their legs until he came upon one guard too fat to maneuver through.

"Heh heh" chuckled the fat man. "Nowhere left for you to run!"

"Who's running?" Suichi said. "You've got the most muscle here, so I'm killing you first." Before the fat man could retaliate with a 'you wish' or equivalently snappy comeback, Suichi was stabbing at his mirth with his blade as a sort of long tonfa, using his arm and shoulder to carve his name into the man's stomach before jumping away and over the legion of men. "I poured a good bit of energy into that attack. You should explode soon."

"Wha...?" the fat man gasped. Unfortunately, Suichi's technique came through before he landed, and an icy-blue eruption replaced the fat man who just blew up.

"Next!" Suichi sighed. The men were already upon him, slashing and hacking madly away at him. He made the most conscious effort to deflect their attacks and defend from all sides as he could, however the honor-glorified Shin and Hoji never gave him practice as to how to block attacks from behind. That being the case, Suichi just did his best and stabbed anyone behind him with his short blade. His sword traveled much faster than anyone else's, but his feet were squared up defensively.

"Keep going!" the leader yelled, frantically and sloppily cutting away. "He can't have much stamina left after fighting Odo!" The men yelled and continued to attack. Suichi started to get rather angry at his own poor performance.

_What the hell am I doing!?_ Suichi asked himself. _I can actually release my sword. At the risk of a few minor cuts, I think it's the safest thing to do right now..._ So he let all the swords lock onto him and push him down. Once he was crouched down far enough, bearing the weight of ten different blades, he punched up and jumped away. No cuts or scratches from his escape, and he was safe to release his sword at leisure in the air.

"Shoot!" Suichi called. "Auto-fire, _Haganerensa!_" With only one extension of his arm, his chain shot and reloaded on its own. Without the extra incanted verve of each separate shot, the piercing power was a bit weaker, but the serrated edges of the chain head still tore apart whomever it hit.

"Block it!" the leader shouted to his company. The chain ripped past whatever got in its way, bouncing past the blades and ripping the soldier's flesh. Five good men had their arms cut down to the bone and hanging muscle chunks in that attack.

"Reload!" Suichi now shouted. His chain came back to him as he landed, but the surviving soldiers wouldn't let his skill intimidate them. One soldier in particular, a top-heavy looking man with a large chest and a wide jaw, was rushing in faster and more chop-happy than his comrades, and Suichi decided to focus his play on him now.

_Fanatics can get dangerous quick_ Suichi reminded himself. That man delivered a strong blow to Suichi's forearm, which was blocked due to the tightly coiled chain around it. The spiked end of the chain stuck out from his middle finger like a dagger as he prepared to stab.

"No way!" the man yelled. He wrenched his sword in under Suichi's chain and, using his superior strength, forced Suichi to retreat a few steps and kept his arm up. Suichi strained to stay on his feet as the soldier's weight started to bear down on him. "You're not laying a hand on my brothers!"

"Yes I am" Suichi said. He unclenched his straining hand and pointed his middle finger at his aggressor's chest. "Shoot!" The chain exploded out like a shot and pierced through his ribs. Three more men, two of them already nearly dead from the metal hail earlier, got cut. His chain returned, scraping through the innards of the man who held him down still with a bloody mouth.

"I will defeat you" the man growled, although his pressure and force began to falter. "You cannot...kill us all."

"Sure I can" Suichi calmly said, pushing him lethargically to the side where he fell and shuffled into place. "Wanna watch me?"

* * *

Up on the high tower's regal rooftop, Hoji and Norbel's fight had been reduced to a game of hide-and-pray not to get hit. The attack and defend was switched from time to time between them both.

"Tch" Hoji angrily grunted. "I'm getting beat up here! I've got to turn the tables quick!" After a grueling sprint for cover, Hoji was now hiding. He kept his pressure under complete control, repelling whatever kido-influenced object came at him without a sound. Norbel paced through the hedge maze like a hunting lion searching for an injured zebra.

"Come out, you" Norbel said. "I'm sure a nasty brute like yourself would like a free cup of sake or two. If you come out, I can promise you'll get more alcohol than you'll know what to do with." Norbel stopped and listened. Hoji's breath was unheard, his pressure impalpable, and his sword unseen. This was because Hoji was a master at trickery in the refined arts of hand-to-hand combat, and was already upon Norbel like a shadow. Moreover, he stood directly in his shadow, glaring down at Norbel from behind. "Come now, I'm becoming bored!"

"KRRRAH!" Hoji roared, shocking Norbel's spine with fear. A swift and stunning elbow to the back, the a low kick through the feet and, keeping the inertia of his spin to let him continue spinning, another kick to the mid-section. That kick sent Norbel into a vine-covered stone pillar. Hoji stopped on the balls of his planted foot with his other leg drawn up to hip level. His sword clacked from the sudden motion as he tilted out to his side in preparation for an attack. He flashed forward as Norbel swung his blade into knives.

"_**Ito!**_" Norbel shouted. All the knives lined up end to end in a straight line, forming a razor rope of knives. "Prepare to become a pile of string!" Norbel shouted. He swung his hand and, like a piece of long wire, the knives whipped after his motion. Hoji leaned back and dodged it, but he was out of his flash step as Norbel attacked again. From the pillar, he started swinging and stabbing with his finger rapidly and the knives were erratically moving about.

"Dammit!" Hoji shouted. He raise up his sword and blocked when he could, but each block let the knives coil around his sword and got a debilitating attack closer and closer to his vitals. At one block the knives started sandwiching him, so he flipped his entire body and followed through with his slash downward, shoving the string of knives into the ground where they disappeared and returned to Norbel as light in the clear stone pathway.

"You can't escape!" He held up his sword in a sort of triumph, pointing to the stormy sky as a crack of lightning streaked through smoky sky. "_**Wana!**_" The blade exploded into knives, but Hoji didn't see where they went. Assuming it was a trap, he stayed back and held out an open palm where energy gathered.

"_Senkou no..._" he began. Norbel's open hand lowered from the skyward point and went palm-side up as Hoji finished. "_Shikyou!_" and Norbel's hand closed. The red lightning arced wildly across the way, then crashed into the ground at Norbel's feet and sent him flying. The knives, however, came from all possible directions and closed in around Hoji. His body was now full of holes and cuts, but his trust in his instincts hadn't failed him. With his massive pressure spike he activated when he saw Norbel's hand close. The tension from his energy only allowed the knives to go through his first layer of skin or so, so he was only covered with minor wounds now.

"_Gattai!_" Norbel called form the trees. The knives sped out of Hoji's body, creating actual, serious wounds as they left and leaving Hoji better for dead. He refused to give up, however, and stayed barely standing on his toes as his back wavered. "Are you ready to submit yet, beast?" Norbel called as he exited the thicket.

"Tch" Hoji weakly scoffed. "You haven't won yet..." He swirled a bit of bloody spit around in his mouth and lurched forward. What was a stumble became a desperate rush with sword drawn across his chest.

"Always the dramatic death with you" Norbel said. Hoji snorted up more spit and started concentrating on his mouth.

"_**Chitantou!**_" Hoji shouted as he opened his mouth. With immense spirit and water pressure, he shot out a piercing bullet of blood that drove through Norbel's collar bone like a spear and splattered who-knows-whose blood on the trees behind him. Norbel fell back and clutched at his wound as Hoji drew closer. Although his spirit remained steel strong, his body was ready to give out and Norbel knew that. He tucked and rolled away from Hoji's first slice, then ducked under the next and let his sword get stuck half-way into a tree. Then, crouching low with his sword pointed up, Norbel lunged forth for a stab!

He missed and the sword went passed Hoji's right shoulder. Both men smiled nefariously at each other, and now the true strength contest began. Hoji summoned up the last of his body's natural strength and yanked his sword from the tree, raising it high above his head. Norbel prepared his muscles to push down through Hoji's chest and open up his body so he could kick freely at his guts. Fear overcame them both for the loss of their lives, but both kept smiling. Then, the blood started to flow and the muscles moved!

_What!? _Hoji desperately shouted to himself. His smile went away and his body was frozen. _I...can't move? Why!? I'm not done yet. I'm not dead yet!!_ Now, however, it seemed he was. Norbel's smile didn't leave. In fact, his eyebrows rose up and made his grin all the more cocky as his sword neatly sliced a clean, diagonal line across Hoji's entire torso. From shoulder to hip, the last of Hoji's blood started pouring out...

* * *

A bloody scene to end the apex of a bloody battle. Mann lay on the ground, breathing labored and lung partially visible, as the blood continued to pool around him. Shin, completely exhausted of all energy, sat against the remains of a broken house. His victory was considered already but his sword was still unsheathed.

"Great fight" Shin said. "Unfortunately, my realm is still too much for you to enter and expect to leave right now..." Mann's only response was to gurgle. "It's like I said, my friend. You must block out the impossibilities of the world and enter a world where only you and your opponent exist. My life didn't matter when I charged you. My feint getting discovered early didn't matter. As long as I could get above you to perform my one attack, I knew I would win. You were far too concerned with cornering me and overpowering me to see how easy it could have been..."

"Huuhhgg..." Man groaned. "You're not very modest...are you?"

"I'm honest" Shin said. "That's why most people don't like me anymore. I scold them without saying anything nice. I'm a bad teacher..." a short silence persisted through the broken and utterly torn town square. If Suichi would look from where he was, he could see the damage Shin had caused. "...I just thought, that if a huge downpour would come, would this village get drowned?"

"No" Mann panted. "The base of the tower has a huge drainage well that supplies all the homes. It's like an underground river with...I don't know...giant stone pillars holding the ground up..."

"That seems a bit fantastic" Shin said. "Wish I could move and go down there. If your general's in this village I could just destroy everything with a few well placed attacks."

"Of course he's not here" Mann said, nearly chuckling. "He hightailed it out of here when he knew Ryoko and Shigu got their asses kicked..."

"...'s that so..." Shin muttered. His entire battle, aside form a great fight in itself, was all for nearly nothing now. A fleeting feeling of darkness came to him. That's when the nightmare of his started. From the corner of his fading vision, Shin saw Mann actually stand up and heard his wheeze out a laugh. Mann's chest was closing up with a horrid but quick;y spreading sort of scarring welt of pulsing red. It truly looked like a nightmare from Shin's perspective, his dead opponent up and reeling back with echoing guffaws.

"For all your strength" Mann started in a healthy voice, "for such a small thing to upset you! It's hilarious! Here I thought you were an emotionless specter of death, walking across the world and killing for no purpose!"

"I kill for purpose" Shin argued, "...sometimes. Mostly, I just like to fight."

"Then you should love me" Mann said. "Now that you're in my world, a fight is all you'll get!" Shin realized the crazy glower in Mann's eyes was a battle-cry. Mann took up his huge weapon and charged forward with it held right where the guard met the hilt for maximum maneuverability.

_Come on!_ Shin chided to his body. _Move!_ Surprisingly, a tingling sensation went through his body and he was up at full energy. With both hands, he blocked Mann's swing and was sent skidding through the rubble from it. Mann continued to charge, roaring, leaving his skin in a messy patch where his sternum was still open and exposed to the air. _If he can feel that it has to be a world of pain I can't imagine. The fact that he can keep fighting through it is frightening._

"Die, Shin KENPACHI!!!" Man shouted. Another monstrous swing came at Shin who defensively raised up his sword. In mid-swing, where the air still struggled around the huge, blunt edge of Mann's exaggerated hammer, another hand came and clutched the handle. With two hands worth of power, Mann's weapon hit Shin's blade and sent a shock of indescribable terror through Shin's body. Shin was sent tumbling away and quickly recovered. He took a disbelieving gaze at his sword, eying down the deep and many cracks that were in it.

"No" Shin lamented hotly. "This can't be happening!" Mann was coming again, both hands wielding and spirit afire.

"GGRAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Mann roared. Regardless to the world's cruel rules, Shin raised up his breaking sword to defend. He called upon every spiritual cell in his body to throw out as much pressure as possible. The clouds far above him started moving to his uncontrollable influence.

"YeeeAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Shin roared back. He took his sword up, sending a wave of utter destruction out, and clashed it down hard on Mann's blade. The force blew apart that entire quarter of the crater city and sent shakes through the tower at the center.

* * *

_So this is my end. My story is over. My journey has ended. I came here with no purpose and now I leave the world with no purpose. I suppose I shouldn't have as many regrets as I do, but I can't help my own cowardice towards Death. All things face death, even we spirits in this realm of death. I wonder what Hell will be like...or perhaps I'll travel to the place where Hollows live and become one myself. No, that's unlikely. I wonder though, how could this battle have changed if I were stronger?...If I were just a little stronger, I could have won. My bones wouldn't be broken and my muscles wouldn't be torn apart, and I would have won!...oh well. Maybe in my next life I'll win another impossible fight like this one..._

And so Shin prosed to himself in stalled fall. Mann's final attack shattered his ribs and pelvis, so now he couldn't move. Mann's wound was closed into a disgusting scar and he swung his sword down from overhead to his side in slow motion. All the world moves slowly, even the morphing clouds as they formed the face of a sinister skull overhead.

"So that's it?" rasped a deep voice. Shin's senses picked up the same jolting shock that allowed him to stand earlier. "You accept death already? Well let me tell you, boy..." And as Mann's sword hit the ground, the dust it kicked up stopped as well. Shin was able to see the phantom appear from behind Mann's sword like a curtain unveiling a villainous player in a tragedy. There hovered the black-cloaked skeleton Shin dreaded and anxiously awaited so much. Unaffected by the halted time, it lurched forward with its scythe full of runes and carved with skulls to whisper through nonexistent lips,

"**Death doesn't accept you!"**Ito : String  
Wana : Trap  
Chitantou : Blood Dagger (Tantou also means to charge in)

* * *


	43. Whipping Winds, Hoji's shikai!

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Suichi's fight still wasn't over. The guards still alive and uncut were continuing their charge at him, unrelenting no matter what. However, a herd of unnamed soldiers charging at an assassin wielding a released sword was still a one-sided battle. Suichi just had to jump back and forth, hopping from side to side and swinging his chain like a horizontal pendulum. The group swayed with him, though not of their own vocation, as the chain was sturdy enough to carry anyone who got caught into the bordering houses.

"Come on!" Suichi taunted. "I'm getting bored!"

"Kill him!" one man shouted. He was caught by the chain and slammed into a house while everyone else continued to duck and dodge.

"Rush him!" another one shouted. As Suichi observed the guards patterns, he decided to switch up his strategy and now swung his chain up and down as well, making a whipping wave motion. With the sudden change, almost all the charging soldiers were taken down, either falling straight to the ground or getting snared by the whip and tossed around a good bit.

"Is it time to give up yet?" Suichi asked the enemies. "I'm getting bored!"

"Men, fall back!" The impromptu leader shouted. With a flash, the conscious four warriors retreated and sheathed their swords.

"Prepare for kido attack on my command!" the actual leader said, barely standing behind them from Suichi's earlier assault. The four well fighters lifted up their arms, opened their palms, and held their extended forearms with their other hand. "Ready!" he commanded, and they started gathering energy into small, green orbs. "Aim!" and they aimed, although Suichi had no intention of staying in one place.

"_**Suzumebachishuriken!**_" The casters incanted quickly.

"_**Kieuseru!**_" Suichi incanted as well. Suichi vanished and three sharply-pointed cones of green energy blew through the street with deep green smoke trailing behind. Suichi wound up behind the line from his super spiritually-enhanced flash step across the air. His spell was less taxing then that of his adversaries, as his was just a hop over them. "Failure!" Suichi shouted. The guards were quick and drew out their swords to charge him. Suichi welcomed them in and blocked all four of them from the flash-step slashes.

"We'll see you fails!" one of the guards cockily snarled. Suichi kicked him in the gut, just under the ribs, and forced the wind from his lungs. Now only three swords on him, Suichi acted. First, he flexed his arm which made his chain wrap around the disarmed sword and snared it. Then, the chain caught the other swords and spaced them out. Suichi extended his chain behind him and glared up.

"Flail, you say?" Suichi said, purposely saying 'flail' rather than 'fail'. He took a step forward and shot his chain out just past the men that were lined up. Once the swords came by, two guards were severely cut at the throat and the other got cut to the bone at his arm, which he threw up to block with. "Reload!" Suichi shouted, and the swords dislodges from his grip and into the bodies of his fallen foes. The winded guard remained, but his sword was firmly stuck in the back of his comrade.

"No..." he groaned. "We can't die yet..."

"Why not?" Suichi asked. He loomed over the young, scared man like an obelisk, staring ahead rather than down with total apathy for his own slaughter.

"Don't be so high and mighty" the leader proper groaned, clutching his side in pain. "Do you even know what their spell did!?" He pointed skyward, where four streaks of thick green smoke were curving around and the flying bullets from earlier were still aimed at Suichi.

"Huh" Suichi noted. "Never seen anything like that before. Oh well. Once they go into the ground, I'll be fine."

"No you won't!" the winded young one said, still trying to catch his breath. "If they hit anything other than their intended target, they explode into a cloud of smaller darts that re-target you and hunt you down!"

"Oh" Suichi said. "Well, I can see how that could be a problem..." So Suichi stood his ground and waited for the darts to come with the completely unintended intent to slice them down with his own kido-enhanced cutting edge.

_I've gone mad, apparently_ he told himself. _I'm not Shin, and I'm not Hoji. I'm an assassin! I can't deflect or block when I could otherwise dodge! Perhaps if I use my Amatsumamori spell, the bullets will just impact and veer away...but now there's no time!_ The arrows came spiraling closer, so Suichi closed hi eyes and let his body take control. It didn't respond, so his sword instead took over.

Deep within the psyche of Suichi, the master assassin, lurked a monster. Bound in chains like a cocooned insect on the verge of metamorphosis was the personification of Suichi's very power. Haganerensa's true spirit, a maniacal power that screeched and roared out its hissed commands to the outside world. With a limp mind and arm, Suichi's chain whipped up, coiled around each speeding bullet individually, and lassoed them all at once. Then, using the kinetic force they generated in free-flight, Suichi let go of his ground and started spinning wildly around.

"I'll redirect them!" Suichi shouted. He poured his spiritual energy into his chain which traveled through each link and absorbed into the magic bullets. Still spinning with the bullets in a wide circle, he formed his next idea. "Seek out General Ken Yaburashiji!!!" And so he let go of the bullet,s faithful in their programing and settled hard on the ground to stop spinning. His chain neatly coiled back into his hand and turned back into a sword which he sheathed and, without another word to the survivors, flashed away.

_I hope to hell and back that worked_ he told himself, kicking and stepping from building to building to reconnoiter with Shin. Suddenly, a pitch black sensation of monumental pressure engulfed Suichi, and even his thoughts were crushed as he went unconsciously to the ground...

* * *

Meanwhile, as Suichi fought to the last, Hoji was lamenting the shortness of his life in the tower where Norbel stood over him. His battle was won, he knew, as Hoji lie defenseless and dying on the ground, unable to move or speak or even blink.

"Ah, Mr. Hoji" Norbel began. "You put up a good fight, but your hubris was far too much for your own good. If you has spent half as much time training your mind as you did your silly, useless techniques like spitting and tree climbing, you may have faired better. But, alas, you are now dead." Hoji was still conscious, and internally seethed at his high and mighty jackass of an enemy. If he left Norbel in this situation he wouldn't gloat, he'd just leave.

"Oh, and another thing!" Norbel continued. "You still haven't feld the tower with my handsome face! You promised me that would happen before the fight was over...strange how that worked out..."

_I get it _Hoji growled to himself. _You won, so just leave it at that and go...I at least put up a good fight. Shin would have liked to watch it, I'm sure. Even down to my last breath I kept up the good fight. Of course, I still lost, but right now I'm learning a little something. Self-confidence is a good thing, but having too much ego can lead to rapid decompression which can destroy a whole village if left unchecked...wait...crap, the blood loss is making my mind wander. I'm even seeing things._

"_Seeing what?_" a womanly, ethereal voice asked.

_Those clouds look like death_ Hoji unwittingly answered, staring up at the skull-shaped storm clouds.

"Now there's something you don't see every day" Norbel pointed out. "Even the clouds are laughing at you, a happy chorus of silent, seething skulls." If Hoji's body worked, his eyes would have shot open. He wasn't seeing those clouds himself, they were real! "I'm not sure if the heavens weep for you or are glad for me for killing you! Someone up there must have loved you to let you win the fights you fought before, that's the only explanation I can conjure!"

_You said I suck already_ Hoji thought. _Now you're just getting boring._

"_Wouldn't it be great to kill him now?"_ the womanly, detached voice said again. _Now that his ego had built up so much from his victory, cutting him down seems like the perfect thing to do!"_

_You're right_ Hoji replied. _But what can I do? I'm dead..._

"_Man up, boy!"_ she growled, now becoming thicker and more real in the air around Hoji's face. _"What attitude is that for Hoji Araijin to have!? You don't submit to anyone, even death itself! Stand the hell up NOW!!!"_ And then, as if by magic of utterly unreasonable explanation, Hoji started moving. First his fingers, which twitched and pushed to get his arms started, then his limbs which continued to struggle until his torso kicked in. Finally, he stood, eyes slowly regaining their lost color with Norbel knowing nothing of it.

"I assume your friends have been dispatched" Norbel cockily said. "It's a shame, really. Going up against the Kyuuhiouto with so much verve and tenacity but nothing to back it up." He then began to turn. "I should give you a proper way out, shouldn't I? Stab you right between the eyes and let you be duuuuuhhh....." He saw that Hoji was standing and glaring him down and his mouth gaped toward the ground. The wind whipped fiercely around him, slicing the grass at his feet and kicking it up in little whirlwinds.

"_Now take up your sword!"_ the voice instructed. Hoji obeyed and held up his sword for Norbel to see, right hand at the hand guard. _"Take a firm grip with your other hand!" _and so Hoji obeyed, meeting the little-finger ends of his hands together with his left arm overlapping his right. _"Now, boy, became a man! Incant the sword and release its power!"_

_I don't know how!_ Hoji desperately replied. Already, the energies from him and his inner spirit were intertwining. The wind guided his pressure in and out of the blade he held so oddly. _What's my sword's name?_

"_Why not just ask, boy?"_ the voice said. A moment of silence passed and Norbel became frustrated. He incanted his sword first into a cloud of knives and prepared to let them fly.

"You truly are a monster!" he shrilled. "Why can't you just stay down and let me be!?"

_Fine then..._ Hoji said grumpily. Knowing his inner sword was, of all things, a woman made him feel slighted. He always assumed it would be a manly reflection of himself and his prowess, or at least something befitting his monstrous style of fighting, but a woman? And then he saw her.

She stood right by him, laying her hands on his. The only fitting word was royal, as she was adorned with ethereally glowing jewels and tiger-stripped fur. Floating scarfs of verdant green silk blew with the wind that kicked up endlessly form her golden, gilded heels. Gold, entwining bracers and bracelets ran the length of her toned arms and a necklace of imperceptibly colored jewels sown into to the shining golden fabric of her regal vestments. A calm and beautiful face with a devious smile and narrow eyes. Flowing hair that streaked with black and radiant silver that held fluttering feathers and billowing dressed silk.

_Who are you?_ Hoji asked. His sword smiled and quietly disappeared into him from behind. She then guided his mouth in the summoning while the wind continued to gust and squall around him like a shield.

"**Rip and Tear"** both incanted at once,  
_**"TORAKAZE!!!"**_"What now!?" Norbel shouted. The pressure whipped straight upwards from Hoji's shoulders like a hurricane and stirred the already violent skies. A hole emerged in the black storm above where the blue sky shined through like a halo high over Hoji's head! His sword exploded into a flowing light and shone brightly around his forearms. His biceps and triceps suddenly started growing tiger strips of red from his skin and all his other wounds became shallow and painless, resembling a full blood-colored tiger that stood in black pants.

* * *

The glowing started to die down and his new weapons were revealed: Gauntlets! Glorious, golden full-armed gloves of metal and pure spirit power. Along the outside bone, a sliver protruded out and ended in a spike at his elbow. The fingers were plate armored with creases that allowed him to move them as he normally would, but they each ended in a fierce claw. All along the metal were stripes of green as well.

_Now you know_ Torakaze said to him in a calming voice, _and now you can fight harder than ever before!_ To this information, the vicious Hoji grinned a wide and eager grin. His low tilted head and shining eyes sent terrible shivers up Norbel's spine, as he knew that smile was for him...

* * *

Suzumebachishuriken: Wasp Dart (shuriken means dart, apparently)  
Kieuseru: Disappear  
Torakaze: Tiger Wind


	44. The Dead and the Dying

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

This was the moment he had dreamed of, visioned a hundred times before! Finally, the release was here. Hoji's new form, **Torakaze!**

"Impossible!" Norbel shouted. "You're dead! I know you're dead! I opened your chest, dammit! You should be DEAD!"

"Yeah" Hoji growled. His life now existed solely on his spiritual energy which his sword miraculously provided. His blood was held withing him because of his pressure, which Torakaze supplemented passively.

_Show him what kind of power you have, Hoji Araijin_ Torakaze said. _Kick his ass! _The last phrase, while unnecessary, made Hoji grin quite evilly. He bent his knees and clawed his hands, spreading them apart so they were parallel across his body.

"I'll rip you apart..." Hoji lowed. Norbel was intimidated, but he wouldn't let that stop him. He took a hand to his barrier of knives and gave a new command.

"_**Yoroi!**_" he shouted. The knives fluttered around him and coated him like scale plate armor. His face was the only thing left exposed. "Try hitting me now! I have already mastered the art of evasion to protect my head, **Jiman-ho! **All you efforts to hit me will be futile, and if you dare to hit me, I'll cut through your feeble weapon and rend your hands apart!" Despite this ample warning, Hoji prepared to dash forward. Mustering up all his physical and spiritual strength, he flashed. Time stopped.

"Woah" Hoji said, resuming the lapse of time. His flash landed him just behind Norbel, who still hadn't noticed that Hoji had moved. Hoji even looked past Norbel's head and saw himself standing there as an after-image. It wasn't even translucent yet. Taking the advantage, Hoji grabbed Norbel by the sharp shoulder an whipped him around. The knives that tried to slice off Hoji's fingers were now dented, much like Norbel's face from Hoji's following punch. From the middle of the tower, Norbel hit and flew through the high wall and was now sailing through the air.

"Holy hell!" Hoji hoarsely exclaimed. "What speed!"

_The speed and power of the wind is yours now, Hoji _Torakaze explained._ Use it!_

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "This'll be easy..." He reached his arms out in front of him and clawed at the air. He was able to grab a hold of the wind that blew around him and use his shikai's power to reel himself forward. He darted through the air faster than any flash step would have propelled him and soon loomed over Norbel who struggled to recover.

"Dammit!" Norbel cursed. "Not only is my face broken, I can't get back to the tower!"

"Suck to be you" Hoji said. He crouched in the air, arms crossed and raking at the whipping wind, and legs comfortably floating behind. Norbel was completely speechless, and all he could do now was watch as Hoji used the wind as a gripping bar to swing around and kick Norbel, once again, in the face. He flew back into the tower, plowed over many trees, and eventually settled.

"So" Hoji said as he slowly fell, "these things can also attack the wind. Nothing's sacred to you, is it Torakaze?"

_I do what I must_ Torakaze responded. _With my power you can use the wind in whatever fashion you wish. Maybe if you see a pretty girl walking around, you can blow up her skirt..._

"Tch. Yeah!" Hoji excitedly said. "Hey, wait a sec! I ain't a goddamn pervert!" he now shouted. Using the same strategy and stance, he pounced like a tiger in a wide arc through the air, over the high walls of the tower, and beck into the grounds. "It seems the more open and gusty the area, the harder it is to get a grip on the air."

_Indeed_ Torakaze confirmed. _You can't fly with this power, but you can come pretty damn close to the sky. Go ahead and use this whelp as a tool and experiment a little further before you kill him._

"No" Hoji said. "That's what Hollows are for now..." With and evil grin, Hoji extended the index and middle finger of each hand. He spun his arms around, set his right in front with the fingers pointed up and the left a little further back and pointing down. With that stance, he lowered his legs, bending his left leg and standing on his toes while his right leg was straight and balanced on the heel. Norbel rose back up at length to see Hoji in this terrible stance and feared the worst.

_No, this can't be real!_ Norbel told himself, his sword back in its original form. _This has to be a dream! A terrible dream! That's it! I'm just asleep, I had too much sake. My mind is wandering from my previous worry of fighting a horrendous opponent with no manners...I'm fine. Just fine...__Now then_ Hoji thought, _what should I call this?_

* * *

_Does it matter!? _Torakaze shouted. _Just thrash him!_

"That's it!" Hoji shouted. He sprang forth, lifting himself with his straight leg and spun his hands around to meet at his side and pressed them together, fingers flat and pointed out from the palm. "_Torakaze, **Shinkuuken!**_" Hoji brought his hands up in front of him as he flew and swiped them apart. The air made an explosive sound as an invisible blade of wind cut a windless path across the ground. The blade hit Norbel and gave him a shallow cut, but it kept going, and the resulting vacuum made all the wind rush in and decimate Norbel's bones and body. He nearly died, still convinced that he was in a terrible dream that wouldn't end.

"Now!" Hoji roared, coming in from above with his legs up and arms drawn back, "DIE!!!" As he neared the ground where Norbel fell, a broken heap that used to be man, Hoji shot forth his arms and blasted a terrible explosion of wind in front of him.

"_**SHIPPUUBAKUHAAAAAA!!!!**_"

The explosive force destroyed Norbel, sending him through every floor of the tower and out the bottom. The foundation of the monolith was destroyed, and the whole structure started to shake as each brick and stone was lodged out of place by Hoji's destructive attack. Hoji, meanwhile, floated calmly with his newly released and empowered weapon as the winds of doom continued to swirl around him.

Suddenly, an explosive force came down from the sky and Hoji felt himself dropping. He reached out into the air and clawed himself some holes to grip. Still, the pressure that built on him made him drop through the continuous destruction below him. He tried to use his feet as well, and wound up finally stopping with his whole body in an X shape.

"What the hell was that!?" Hoji shouted. A warm sensation came riling up from his throat and forced him to spit out a good glob of his own red blood all over his neck and chest.

_No!_ Torakaze shouted. _If you lose consciousness, I'll deactivate and you'll die!_

"Tch" Hoji coughed, leaking blood quickly, "Dammit!" So, in a desperate rush, he countered the pressure and started running vertically on all fours through the air itself. Once back up to the top of the crumbling tower, he found a proper patch of ground and sat. His gauntlets exploded into light which reformed into his sword in its own sheathe. Hoji's eyes went lucid and his body shut down once more.

_It was a good first attempt_ Torakaze said, now speaking alone. _I'll have to get used to this, being controlled by a young man, but I'll get used to it in the future..._ As the clouds continued to move and morph, the halo Hoji made was covered once more by the black skulls in the sky. Some wicked and powerful force was building not too far away, making the heavens cower and killing the faith of everything alive. Trees all around Hoji's body started dying, as if on impulse to die, and the winds of Torakaze used the dead bark as a shield to protect Hoji's body.

Black clouds that refused to drop any rain out of fear rolled in. Terrible, laughing skulls that covered the whole sky.

* * *

Finally, as his allies fought and won, Shin was still frozen in time staring down the very image of death. Death would not accept him, no matter how much he wanted it now. Mann was a statue, carven with a mixed arrogance and respect in his bloody jaw. His chest was scarred but closed, his sword was dented but intact, and the wind around him stopped for Shin and Death to talk. The whole world was on pause for the shinigami.

"Now what?" Shin asked, lurched over and panting, asking himself silently how he was alive.

"Be more respectful" the phantom said. It pulled out a bleach-white hand and arm of bone to point at the pathetic Shin in pain. "Do you now who I am?"

"...Death..." Shin said.

"Close" it replied. "I am not Death itself, as no such being can exist in this world. You, Shin Kenpachi, are as much a specter of death as I am, and as he is" referring to Mann.

"I can believe that" Shin said. "That is the man that delivered me to death."

"Get over it!" the towering ghost shouted. "You're not dead or dying! This is merely an intervention."

"What?" Shin asked, confused. "What exactly are you?"

"Look within yourself for the answer" the phantom said. "You shall find it there..." Shin stared up at the thing with labored breathing, then looked to his side. In his hand, his sword, and it was in perfect shape. No crack or dent or anything else, just a perfect and gleaming new sword with the same, odd hand guard as before.

"...my..." Shin started. "My sword." His picked his head up quickly in surprise. His eyes shot wide open with astonishment.

"That's right, Kenpachi" the phantom's voice boomed through Shin's sword. "I have arrived to bestow my power to you..."

"Why?" Shin asked. "Why now, when my life is almost over. Is this my last stand, the only time I'll get to see my full power!?"

"Shin Kenpachi" the voice began, "your life is far from over. Ask any wise man, or go back and ask the old grasshopper man, your journey has only begun. Your name will be forever etched into the vast history of the shinigami. Your power will change the entire world, start a war, end the same war. You will give rise to the greatest house of all the shinigami and incite the change that will carry this Soul Society into eternity!"

"But I don't care about that crap" Shin said very bluntly. "I just want to fight."

"And you shall" the sword said. "Take up your sword once more and find the power within you! There is only one place at the pinnacle of mayhem and destruction, and that place belongs to you! You are the God of Death! ACT LIKE IT!!!"

And so time resumed. Mann spun around on his heel, completely unaware that Shin was fine again, when a tidal wave of pressure came down on him. He was unable to turn around as Shin built up his force and spread it across the entire sky. The whole crater town was under his debilitating gaze now. As his inner spirit instructed, Shin closed his eyes and looked deep within himself to find what he needed.

The land of his soul was a parched, ancient battleground where a myriad of swords were lodged within the ground. As Shin stood in his own mental reflection, he looked around. An infinite expanse that rolled over the horizon ahead. Behind him, ruins that seemed to pile and rise up from the ground. Broken stone pillars and houses. All around him, on any side, a wall of swords from the fallen. And up in the sky, the sky that was cloudless yet dark gray, was the billowing robe of the phantom blocking the sun. As Shin stared upward the knowledge flowed in and the sun began to streak out onto the field.

Suddenly, the ground became radiant with life. Crimson butterflies and tiny dragons began flying about. Shin drew out his sword from its sheathe and held it, left hand on the handle and right hand near the end of the blade. The reflection he cast in his sword came back to him as a skull, staring vacantly into infinity. Back in reality, Mann had just turned, barely standing in Shin's super pressure field, and watched the energy swirl up. To him, it resembled a giant skull.

"**Reaping time..."** Shin incanted  
**_"SHIKEI!!!"_**

There was a silent explosion as Shin's garb ruffled. In his hands now was no longer a sword, but a monstrous, black scythe...

* * *

Yoroi: Armor  
Jiman-ho: Pride Step  
Shinkuuken: Vacuum Blade  
Shippuubakuha: Hurricane Blast  
Shikei: Death Penalty


	45. Shikei

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

In the Golden Age of Shinigami power, it is hard to define an important event in terms of the zanpakuto. Many of the Bankai forms of present day shinigami would only stack up with the more powerful shikais of this Era's standard. Now, under the black sky of laughing skulls, one such power has emerged. More power than one can measure by the modern standards, more raw force than any weapon designed yet. More dangerous than a rain of swords, a wildfire of inextinguishable flames; Shin Kenpachi has summoned up death itself.

Shikei, the Death Penalty, his scythe. Now we sill see the power that Shin has held deep within himself for so long!

* * *

Shin stood firm, back straight and eyes blasting out pressure, with his awesome scythe in hand. His hands were in the same spot as it was incanted, left hand further down the shaft and right hand near the blade. It was less spectacular than Shin had anticipated, just a long black handle and a sharp, black blade with a sharpened silver side. He still bled from the mouth and had difficulty keeping his body up, but the pressure continued to pour out.

_This is insanity_ Mann said. _He's dead. DEAD! I bashed his ribs into dust and mashed his organs into paste! PASTE! How is this man walking!?_ Then he saw it. The horrible swirling in the distance. The rain clouds that twisted and contorted into the shape of a giant skull in the sky. Then more clouds moved over the skull, covering it, and forming a face. Shin's face.

_At least I'm standing_ Shin told himself. _I know that my body won't work, my magic won't work, and by association this scythe won't work. But the one thing that is working, thankfully, is my pressure._

_Don't settle for less!_ Shikei shouted. _If your body won't move for you, make it move for me! Listen and comply with your soul. Work with me, Shin Kenpachi!_

"Fine" Shin growled. He forced his brain to fuse with his spirit, and both Shin and Shikei moved his leg forward. It was daunting to control his body using an outside source, but he was making it happen. Mann was now adapted to the pressure that kept pressing him down, and he prepared for Shin's advance. "Ignore him" Shin said. "Keep walking."

_You think it's hard to walk?_ Shikei asked. _Imagine attacking. Swinging that weapon of yours._ Shikei had a point. Swinging a sword was much easier than accurately attacking with a scythe. He had a limited cutting area and no thrusting power. Instead of wild swings, he had to make precise swipes and get in a very specific area. Once he was close enough to hit, he couldn't easily get any closer and still do damage. The weapon was designed for an expert in the field of scythes, and Shin was a swordsman before anything else.

_I need to realize the right style first_ Shin said. _I won't be able to fight at all if I can't use this weapon. Right now, I'm disadvantaged._

"Come, Shin" Mann growled, finding it difficult to talk under the pressure. "You will lose."

"Maybe" Shin groaned. He stopped his leg as it planted and lowered the blade of his scythe to Mann's neck level, a threat of death. "Let's see what you can do, Shikei..." Shikei listened to the dread in his tone and stirred in his hands. Mann raised up his giant sword, which was now under heavy damage. He still ran forward, sword up, and swung it hard at Shin. No wind whipped up and no dust moved from the crashing swing this time. Shin instinctively rose up his scythe vertically and blocked the attack. His intent was to block and absorb, but Shikei led his arms into a sudden spasm that deflected Mann's sword so far that his arm was nearly disjointed.

"Grh!" Mann growled. Shin saw opportunity as Mann was slowed by the pressure and stepped in. Though his body still bled from within, his mind was poised on the kill and his arms were focused on his scythe. Shikei went under its own influence and became incredibly light. Shin lowered his right hand's grip on the handle and pushed forward with his right arm while pulling back with his left. The pivot of the scythe made it swing so sharply the air was seen splitting in a distorted fashion behind the blade. Mann, meanwhile, got caught in the attack and had his chest cut from across. It was only a cut, though, and he retreated at full speed to avoid another.

"I got it..." Shin said. He kept his scythe swinging, following the motion the whole way through, and let the blade hook around to his back. He let go with his right hand, let the handle curl around his left index, then grabbed the end of the handle with his right as it spun around to the left side of his body. His right arm was wrapped around his face, drawing the scythe back even further, preparing a massive sword slash.

"No way" Mann groaned. He tried hard to bring his sword back around, dragging it across the ground and moving his whole body to get it in front of him, as he could see the attack coming. Shin spun the scythe around, blade now facing out again, and took a deep step in with his left foot. Then he worked his lateral muscles, his obliques, and his hips to spin his body around. As the scythe again cut through the air, he let his arm blast out and whip around. Mann's sword was up in front of him, sticking from the ground like an iron grave marker. Shin didn't see it, but Mann had also leaned back and let his arm hold the sword steady from a distance. It worked in avoiding certain death.

_This is power, Shin_ Shikei said. _This is what you were always destined to possess._

"It's nice" Shin said. The scythe had blown apart the air around the blade as it traveled like a sword in more than 360 degrees. Mann's sword was cut close to the hilt, and his arm was separated with it. A small cut appeared on his forehead, just above his scared and disbelieving eyes.

_I'm glad I could die, Shin_ Mann said, unable to verbalize his thoughts at the moment. He saw Shin taking his weapon in both hands again, winding up high towards the sky in a head-cutting motion. _I am glad that, through my power, I was able to release one such as you into the world. Kill many for me, Shin Kenpachi. Accomplish what this humble barbarian was unable..._

That was it. In a black flash of glaring steel, Mann was dead, and Shikei was stained with its first real blood, the first true warrior's blood it had ever felt.

* * *

The battle was officially over. Shin's pressure lifted, the guards cleared out once they gained consciousness at last, and the three mighty fighters were safely lying on the ground, counting their blessings. Suichi awoke first to the rain that started pooling the center of the crater. Then, he raced into the building pond that formed with the clogged drains at the base of the ruined tower. Hoji was safely floating on a piece of grassy rubble against part of a tree. He was injured, but he was breathing and alive. His sword was in its sheathe as well, something Suichi didn't anticipate. Now he had to find Shin with Hoji on his back.

"Compared to that pressure" Suichi said, "you're pretty light, Hoji." Hoji stayed asleep and limp on Suichi's shoulder as the assassin raced around looking for his other unofficial bodyguard. "That pressure though...what the hell was it? It wasn't natural. It stopped the rain and knocked everything out!" Finally, Suichi found some terribly torn up ruins that were stained with blood. Near the center, he found his lost comrade, Shin, laying unconscious with his sword out of his hand. He also saw a headless corpse a ways away, but ignored it out of respect.

"Shin!" Suichi called, hoping there would be some response. He laid Hoji down carefully and rushed over. "Shin. Shin Kenpachi, are you alive!?" He saw the dust moving as Shin breathed, a good enough sign. He turned him over onto his back and looked at his wounds. His chest was basically smashed in, like some iron giant stepped on it. The broken bones were visible almost poking through the skin.

"Oh, that isn't good" Suichi said. "I don't know how to heal, either. You're just going to have to live with the pain for a while, Shin..." Then, Shin's sword caught Suichi's attention. Seeing it out of its sheathe and on the ground, wet with blood, sent unfamiliar chills up his spine. It was like looking at a different sword, or someone holding a sword at him.

_What is this?_ Suichi asked himself. _Shin's sword fells...dangerous. I feel like it's staring me down. For some reason, I feel like there are daggers at my throat...no, at all my vitals right now! Could it be...?_ Suichi reached for the sword, very slowly and cautiously lest it jump up and bite him, to touch it. He poked the hilt, and felt those daggers tighten up his throat and knot his innards as he did. Then he took a cold whim and grabbed the sword. It was indescribable what happened, but it ended in Suichi feinting away from Shin and waking up shortly after.

"It's just like I thought" Suichi said. "The power Shin has...can't be explained." He looked at Shin, peacefully dead looking, then over at Hoji, who was now heaving pained breaths and coughing. Suichi picked himself up, got light-headed and almost fell over, then ran to Hoji's side. "Hoji, are you alright?" he asked.

"Can you see my heart beating?" Hoji asked. Suichi looked at his chest, which had a long but healed scar on it, and saw nothing beating that he shouldn't see.

"No, I can't" Suichi answered. "You'll be fine."

"Cool" Hoji said. "Help me up?" Suichi grabbed his arm and draped it over his shoulder. Hoji stood weakly on his feet and kept a hand on Suichi's shoulder for balance. "Where's Shin?" he asked. Suichi pointed over to the battered body that Hoji asked for, and Hoji gave a painful wince. "Damn. He got the short stick alright..." Hoji had to pause from his pleasantries to cough up some blood, but quickly recovered. "Who's that?" Hoji asked.

"Who?" Suichi asked. He looked over where Hoji was looking and became startled. There was a man standing there, looking over the carnage with his arms crossed. He had a sword holstered in plain view, which worried Suichi most. His garb was either that of an assassin or an indiscreet scout, with tightly bound, red and black belts and sashes around his face and torso and very tight wraps on his shins and feet.

"What a miserable scene" he said in a calming, almost sweet voice. Then he flashed over to Suichi and waved a hand. "Sleep, injured one." Hoji fell right asleep, snoring on Suichi's shoulder, but Suichi didn't budge.

"Hypnosis won't work" Suichi said. "I'm immune."

"Of course you are" the stranger said, "but are you immune to pain?" Without warning, the stranger delivered a solid punch to Suichi's diaphragm, pushing the air out of his lungs and forcing him into collapse. What happened after was unknown, as Suichi lost all consciousness for some time...

"I have recovered Shin Kenpachi and his friends" the stranger reported into what looked like a walnut shell. He held it to his ear, nodded as he listened, then held it back to his mouth. "Yes my lady, I will make sure they are transported safely. Please prepare the medics upon my arrival." He stowed the nut shell and looked down at the sleeping, unconscious, and nearly dead bodies he had to carry. "Ooohh, my..." he sighed.


	46. Waking in Darkness

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Out in the deathly wastelands that bordered the mountains in Soul Reaper country, a fleet of angry Hollows were fighting a group of menacing shinigami.

"RAAAAAWWWGGH!!!" Roared the loudest and strongest one. "You puny little pukes are no match for the might of BARUK!!!" The bulging muscles of the Hollow rippled out equivalent pressure around it. The force of miscellaneous other Hollows, with snake-like bodies and strange animal-like masks, swarmed around their leader and roared with him. The shinigami at the front glared down in the dark light of the covered moon and grabbed his sword. Right hand over left, raised up to head level, set over the right shoulder and pointed down to the target, which was Baruk.

"Careful, Baruk" called the effeminate voice of his companion, Liera, above. "The silk-haired one is attacking."

"His power is weak!" Baruk declared. "He can cut as much as he wants, but I will block it with but the batting of my eyelashes!!!"

"But Baruk" one random Hollow pointed out, "you don't have eyelashes!" Baruk grabbed the rude snake and threw him at the shinigami. The clouds skipped a second of movement and the Hollow was already split apart, divided where the shinigami stood, and dissolved into darkness.

"Prepare to die, shinigami!" Baruk shouted. "Charge!!!" At his command the snake Hollows flew forward, all of them howling with bloody murder in their golden eyes. As soon as they came into the shinigami's reach, they died. There was no readable motion from the dreaded swordsman, not even a wave of sudden pressure. They were dead and dissolved into the darkness just the same. Baruk growled and clenched his fists in anger.

"What's wrong, big guy!?" one of the other, shorter shinigami shouted from behind the leader. "You look like you're gonna crap yourself!"

"Leave him be" a larger, darker-skinned and orange-haired man chided quietly. "It is no one's fault that the Hollows cannot stand to our strength."

"You need to work out, monster" another arrogant, shirtless man said with a flexing pose in the dark. "You'll never beat the Tenshioni with puny muscles like those!"

"Tenshi....oni...?" Baruk slowly repeated.

"Never mind their titles" Liera said as she swooped and flew far above, "I have discovered the secret to his technique!"

"Whatever" Baruk grumbled. He blindly rushed in, regardless to Liera's information, and started swinging his fists at the shinigami who dodged effortlessly without ever breaking his stance. "I'm gonna get you eventually, shinigami!" he roared. "You can't fight me without swinging your sword or kicking your feet!" The shinigami defied his taunt and continued to shift around without moving his feet from his stance. He was like a statue being moved along the ground by some arcane force.

"I don't even have to bother" the shinigami said. Baruk planted his feet and drew back a heavy swing, but froze up. A slim sliver started making a vertical cut on his mask. He watched the shinigami with the heightened awareness he had in death, unable to act at all, and only saw his venomous glowing eyes as he withdrew and sheathed his sword. There was no warning, no build up for Baruk. There was just death, and then Hell. "A weakling like you is of no concern to me..."

"Netami" the large dark man shouted. Netami was already starting to walk away, in the direction the Hollows had once blocked, but glanced back over his shoulder. "What of the flying one?"

"Do as you wish with it, Kakugari" Netami called back. "I'm going ahead."

"Wait up, Captain!" Horoshi called. Senshi followed behind while Kakugari drew out his sword and prepared a release.

"Baruk, you fool" Liera somberly chided. She started ascending in a steep arc to the sky towards a gaping, toothy hole in the air. "I'll have to tell the others of your demise...first Danzig and now you. I think the others will begin to lose heart soon." Liera suddenly snagged in the air, stopping her ascent dead. She was quickly dragged down to the ground by a mysterious force that gripped her at the breast and in her beaked mouth. "What...!?" Soon, a black aura engulfed her and she lost consciousness. Kakugari deactivated his sword and sheathed it once more. It bundled into the sheathe as a dark mass of odd energy that ended eventually in the hilt and hand guard.

"There we are" Kakugari announced. He paced himself to catch back up to his traveling brethren and walked with them once more. They were bound for the mysterious mountains that until now held the border between their homeland and the unknown of their imagination. Beyond this short range of rolling mountains was Netami's target, the object of loathing that drove him to continue blindly forward...Suichi.

* * *

Elsewhere in the spirit world, more specifically in the Seireitei, troubled news was brewing up. The news of Shin Kenpachi's epic campaign against the notorious Kyuuhiouto of the neighboring region had finally reached his homeland. The slum goers and the random bandits of the Zaraki district were abound in cheer as the criers and heralds from the inner sanctums of the citadel reached them. The more notorious gangs took those newsmen hostage, of course, but they celebrated their local hero anyway.

"Hail, Shin Kenpachi!" one rough thug roared.

"The baddest of all our asses!!!" another added. Parties started spontaneously breaking out. Sword fights and the rarer death in the streets were everywhere. Surprisingly, this was a peaceful scene in the edge area. The families all hid inside from the happy thugs with their children and the merchants sold record wares to the grateful maniacs and slumlords.

"There's news that that Shin guy's being hunted now" one shinigami said to another.

"Really?" the other said. "I heard he singlehandedly wiped out all the Bloodbane bandits out in the Blood Plains!"

"No way" another disagreed. "That couldn't've been him!"

"I think it was one of those weird assassin groups I heard about" another shinigami pointed out.

"Who knows" one drunk man said. "It's better for all of us if we think it was Shin! Come on, let's celebrate our brother's triumph over the...deh...yeah!"

"RAAAHHHH!!!!" they all roared!

"SHUT UP!!!" screamed a little girl. Cold and painfully cynical Atsuko had been awakened from her sleep by the terrible bandits and was not happy about it. "Take your partying somewhere else if it has to keep happening. I'm trying to sleep."

"Awwww" a bandit cooed. "Poor little girl. Does you mommy know you're up?" He wheezed out some devious laughter with stingy breath while all the local warriors just hung back and watched with fright.

"Don't tease her, dude!" someone shouted. "That kid ain't right." He leaned in anyway, far too close to her, and continued to spout drunken nonsense.

"Oes da babee wan huuu miwk?" he gibbered. Then he laughed uproariously, making Atsuko silently seethe. She stealthily reached into her robes sleeve, pulled out a sword and stabbed the drunken bandit through the nose. His face was stunned in fear and distress until she pulled the sword out and sheathed it inside her robe. Then he went screaming off through the street in terrible pain.

"Sorry kid" one bigger bandit said. "We'll keep it down. You get some sleep." Atsuko shuffled back across the street to her home and the bandits continued to offer their blind praise to Shin and his company. Quietly, of course.

Elsewhere still, in the prestigiously isolated and secluded foothills away from the Seireitei, in a mansion befitting the most supreme of royalty that lived in the forest, news of Shin Kenpachi finally reached one of his youngest and most esteemed fans during his ritual bath with his father.

"WOAH!" Sensuke exclaimed. "That's awesome! Those guys are so cool!"

"Sensuke, sit down" his father, an aged and royally framed demanded. "I don't want the names of those villains coming up in this home!"

"I'm sorry, sire" the reporting butler apologized. "I thought news of the Kyuuhiouto would concern you a little more. They were clients of yours, after all."

"Be that as it may" the royal Mokojiro man said, "our business with them is now over. I don't want to hear anymore concerns about those murderers or those damnable criminals. I'm forever done with them!"

"Well" Sensuke huffed, "I'm still glad to hear something more about Shin and Hoji. At least they're still alive and kicking!" Sensuke's father responded to the rebellious thoughts of care for killers by taking his son's head and dunking it in the mineral water. The butler and the washing maids present backed away and watched with mixed humor and fear for the young master's health. In the next room, Aya was practicing her formal tea-preparation for the regal events she would attend in the distant future as Sensuke's wife. She also heard the news, which made her excited in her own way as well. She cracked the slightest smile as she ground the leaves in the mortar at the fine table she sat at.

* * *

...

...

...

...

_Tch. Now what...?_ The echoes in his head were almost painful. The light came pouring into his vision. His sides hurt. His skin hurt. His muscles were still burning unimaginably. Hoji was awoken to a world of pain and confusion, a world of black with building red. He finally escaped his vacant world and opened his eyes to the blinding flash of daylight. _How long have I been out...? _He asked. As his eyes adjusted and his ears came to, he saw the finely carved ceiling of wonderful wood. The rice-paper doors and walls shone in a soft-white light. The floor around him was barren except for his comforting, bulky blanket and the bucket of water next to him.

"Tch." he grunted aloud. He tried to sit up but found it difficult. Then he reached for his sword at his waist, but felt nothing. This re-awakened his body into a painless panic as he felt around frantically for his sword all over his body. "What the hell!? Where's my-" it was on the floor across the room, he saw, perched on a sort of stone shrine. Incense burned around it, and the sheathe had a mysterious glow that Hoji never noticed before. It looked beautiful in its oddly peaceful place. "Where am I...?" Hoji stood up, then fell down softly in pain, then stood back up slowly and walked to a sliding door. He would see just where he was and lessen the burden of panic.

_More importantly...where's Shin...?_

So he opened the door and let the glaring light come at him. He squinted hard and used a hand to visor his eyes. Stretched before him was a beautifully landscaped garden of so many herbs and flowers that his eyes needed to adjust to each row of plants separately. A small, luxurious fish pond was dug in the far corner, right against a high-rising wall of white plastered stone. There was golden dust of pollen that blew up in the odd breeze that made the air radiant with unknown glory. Rows of stone paths for walking and strolling, whole sakura trees and other breeds with swings and logs hanging from the stronger branches.

There were only small clouds spotting the sky, creating rolling shadows in the light breeze. Hoji could see a white figure far away, in the center of the garden sitting on a stone bench, and he squinted to make out the form at a distance.

That's where this leg of the story ends.


	47. Rei Unohana

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Down the wooden hallway two young women walked. One carried neat bundle of clean, white bandages and the other carried her sword.

"What do you think of these three?" the bandage carrier asked the other girl.

"I'm not sure" the sword girl said. "The shaved-head-guy is kind of cute, I guess."

"You would say that" the other girl remarked, smiling while her friend blushed. "You always go for the rough and tough looking guys!"

"Well, what about you?" the sword girl demanded. "Which guy do you like, huh?"

"I don't really like any of them" she said. "I'm saving my heart for a strong, sensitive and nurturing guy that will walk through Hell and back for me."

"And you're waiting for him here?" her friend remarked. Then she started quietly laughing while the bandage girl puffed her cheeks in anger and started stomping. Once they arrived at the door, the sword girl opened it and looked inside. "Where'd he go?" The man who was in the room, and the sword that was on the shrine rest was gone with him.

That man, Hoji, was staggering painfully through the garden area with his sword sheathe gripped in hand. "Tch" he grunted, "what in hell happened? I was fighting, then a huge wave of pressure broke the tower...and Shin..." He only wanted to breathe now and stopped talking. Using his sword sheathe as a cane, he hobbled over to the mysterious person seated on a stone bench. As he hobbled he noticed the strange structure of the garden. The further he looked in one direction, the more wild the growth and beautiful vegetation. In the other direction, the plants and grass leveled down to a short, luxurious level. It was like a continuum of gardening that Hoji was walking through.

"Weird landscaping" Hoji noted. "I like it..."

"Hey!" a girl shouted. Hoji turned around and saw a tall girl with short, black hair and a sword in her grip glaring him down. Hoji added the two parts, person plus sword, and came to a hasty conclusion. First, he planned out what a battle would be like in his condition. Then, almost immediately, he made the definite choice of talking things out first. The person sitting on the other side of the garden would be his hostage.

"You shouldn't be up!" the shorter, blonder bandage carrying girl said. "Natsumo, go chase him! He's your husband, after all!"

"Shut up!" Natsumo shouted. "So I'm interested in him, so what!?" She started running after Hoji anyway, and the panicking warrior started hobbling faster toward his goal, the mystery person. Unaware of the coming chaos, that mystery person, a women dressed in shinigami robes, sat calmly sipping from a cup of tea and gazing at the flowers around her.

"Tch!" Hoji growled, loud enough for the mystery woman to hear. He flash stepped forward, stopped behind her, and threw his sword out of his sheathe. With the inertia of his spinning motion, he grabbed the woman by the back of her robe and lifted her up, still in a sitting position with her tea undisturbed, and held his sword to her throat. "Don't try anything absurd!" he demanded. Natsumo stopped with a skip and faced down her now adversary with a now vicious glare.

"Don't talk about being absurd, you ass!" she shouted. Immediately, she dropped her sword and covered her mouth. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to swear! My emotions got the best of me again!!!"

"It's alright" the mystery hostage softly said with a very soft and light laugh at the end. "Excuse me, but could you please put me down?"

"Who are you?" Hoji demanded with strain, "and why am I here?" More importantly, have you seen a guy with short, black hair and an imploded chest!?"

"Of course I've seen him" she politely said. She turned to face Hoji with her warm and caring eyes, her dainty lady-like smile, her evenly parted hair that came down to short curls on her neck and gave him a heart-meltingly cute smile. "I'm the medic who healed him." Hoji was taken aback with shame, then embarrassment, then pain. It's hard to say which force caused him to drop her down and fall on his back.

* * *

Now much calmer and sedated on relatively ineffective painkillers, Hoji sat opposite his gracious host in her robes across a tea table. On either side of her sat the girls Natsumo and her blond counterpart Telli, who were now much more wary of their guest now that his sword was back in his hands.

"First off" Hoji said, raising his sheathed sword and slamming it on the table, "I feel the need to apologize. I didn't realize I was being cared for..."

"No worries" his hostess said waving her hand. "You're not the first person to try and attack us without warning."

"Although you are the first to be as stupid as you are and move after the thrashing you must've taken" Telli noted. Natsumo reached over and pushed her swiftly. Telli got up and angrily curled her sleeves back, ready for a fight, but their smiling leader set them both down with the clearing of her throat.

"So what are you guys?" Hoji asked.

"Umm...we're just people like you" the hostess said. "I'm sure you're more a fighter than we are, but deep down we are the same. We are made of the same spiritual particles and soul energy."

"...eh?" Hoji grunted quizzically. "Okay...who are you?"

"Oh yes, I'm so sorry" she apologized. "It's rude for a host not to introduce herself, isn't it? My name is **Rei Unohana**, and this is my home. I'm sorry you had to awaken in such unfamiliar surroundings, but I had little choice."

"You saved us?" Hoji asked. "I remember some weird-looking dude knocking me out with some weird kido spell, but I don't remember any girls there. Sorry."

"Oh, I didn't save you personally" Rei admitted humbly. "That was just one of my medical scouts. He was patrolling for nearby Hollow activity for my research and found you and your friends in terrible shape. I have to ask, what happened?"

"Ah, we were killing people" Hoji said nonchalantly, taking no care into speaking so lightly of death in front of strangers. "It got a little out of hand. I blame her" as he now pointed at his sword. Rei looked curiously at Hoji, and his sword, and pieced together some equations in her mind.

"Who..." Natsumo cautiously asked, "who were you killing? Just people? Innocent civilians!?"

"The Kyuuhiouto" Hoji answered.

"Ah" Natsumo noted, "then that's alright."

"Those guys are mean!" Telli added. "They always came around here to extort us for having a mansion out in the wilderness, but Lady Unohana always beat them back, right Lady Unohana?" Unohana was still deep in thought, as one could tell by her blank stare forward, past Hoji.

"So" Rei began anew, "your friend destroyed that town?" Hoji thought about it for a second himself, but was preemptively interrupted by the man Unohana asked, behind him.

"Yes" Suichi answered, up and about with not a scratch on him. "Shin Kenpachi is responsible for Gevlav's nonexistence. Is that a problem?" Hoji darted around on his knees, shot up to his feet and rushed over to his friend who leaned against the wall in the shadows.

"Suichi!" Hoji exclaimed, "You're awake?"

"Hello Hoji" Suichi greeted. "Have you met Lady Unohana properly yet? Introduced yourself in a gentlemanly manner as you are so prone to doing and thanked her for her free medical treatment and housing?" Hoji answered Suichi's obviously snide and sarcastic question with one of his own.

"Suichi!" Hoji exclaimed, "You're alive!?" Suichi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in anger. "Oh, wait, I thought I heard of you before" Hoji said again, turning back to his person of interest. "You're some kind of scientist, a Hollow researcher, right?"

"Yes, that's right" Rei answered with a dainty smile.

"Cool" Hoji noted. "Got any living specimens I can practice on?"

"Hold that thought" Suichi said, pushing Hoji away as he walked forward. "I thank you and am grateful, don't be mistaken, but I am a bit curious. Where is Shin?" Rei just sat and looked up noncommittally, then tilted her head with a smile as she began her response.

* * *

Shin lay, still asleep, on a lavish bed surrounded by a curiously clinging mist and burning incense. His chest, though covered by blankets, was in a normal shape but his organs and bones were still ravaged. Mann's final attack had been too much for his body to bare, but with the incredible healing capabilities of Rei and her fellow medical soldiers, he was on the way to recovery.

"Damn" Hoji noted.

"He was in the worst shape" Rei said with a serious face. "I was unsure of even my own abilities to heal him at all. He has remarkable spiritual endurance to have lived through such a fight."

"Well, he is invincible" Hoji said. "I'm not surprised he's dodged death so swiftly like this."

"Be serious, Hoji!" Suichi growled. "Just look at him! His spirit energy is barely even there! He looks dead as it is, and without a proper field around him he's just an empty shell of the man he used to be. That isn't Shin, that's just his shadow. It'll take a while for the real Shin to come back from the abyss now..." Hoji, rather than burst out some patriotic speech about Shin's strength and his absolute godly capacity in battle, just stood and looked. Shin's field of black, resonating energy was indeed very lose to the ground. In fact, the mist around him wouldn't even go near the energy, like it was scared.

"It will indeed take some time" Rei said, "but not an eternity. Give him a month of rest, no spiritual aggravation or stimulation, and he'll be fine."

"I don't get it" Hoji said. "How'd he get this bad?"

"It may have been his sword" Suichi pointed out. "Isn't that an accurate theory, Lady Unohana?" She nodded and began a detailed explanation.

"Upon the first shikai, or initial release" she said, "some shinigami are prone to getting overpowered by their own swords. In fact, it happened to me. The sudden shift in power, coupled with the event that forced that power out of him, drained his soul of nearly all its energy and threw him into this comatose state. His energy is incredibly dense as it is, and you can imagine the damage it can do when unrestrained. He destroyed Gevlav with an unconscious flex of this spiritual pressure. You can imagine the damage it would do when used all at once from a single source. Honestly...he should be dead..."

"No, I get that" Hoji said, which Suichi leaned in with amazement at. "But...I mean...Shin's invincible. He shouldn't be like this, regardless of how bad the battle was. He's fought bigger, more powerful things before and he always just walked away like nothing happened!" Suddenly, Hoji's mind couldn't help but go back and re-watch all the battles he and Shin had marched through. The Gillian Hollow, the Kyuuhiouto villains, the various other shinigami guards that they dispatched sometimes without their swords, the Adjuchas Danzig...

And as all those battles and their outcomes were played in Hoji's eyes, tears swelled up. Hoji' completely unable to comprehend the situation of an incapacitated Shin, was crying tears of confusion and desperation. "Shin...Shin's a god........." Suichi put a hand on his shoulder for comfort and Rei gave him a piteous look, but Rei was far too focused on the state of this so-called god in her own bed. Even lying down with only a slim chance of suddenly waking, Shin had the most menacing aura of death and power she had ever seen. No Hollows or shinigami could be compared to what she saw now.

Even unconscious, Shin was extremely dangerous to be around...


	48. Hoji Araijin's Grief

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Unohana Manor: The most prestigious estate in the stark and forested countryside! It's owner, the beautiful genius of spiritual manipulation Rei Unohana, is the second generation of the Unohana family. She took her mother's work and advanced upon it a hundred fold! It is rumored, though not confirmed, that she has visited the world where Hollows come from! He knowledge is the greatest in the entire spirit world!

Not only is her scientific prestige amazing, but she is a wonderful humanitarian. In addition to her research obligations she has opened her mansion as a permanent home for children orphaned by soldiers in this cataclysmic war. She is the one person the world associates with kindness and humane activism.

And now Shin Kenpachi and group have fallen in place within these walls. What ironic luck they have...

* * *

In the garden of the manor, Hoji had retreated and settled near the pond that was surrounded by wild and beautiful growth. He had been seen breaking down and finished it in private. Now, he was silently sulking at his reflection in the koi pond, watching the fish swim by and make ripples in the water. This silence continued despite Suichi's obvious presence from behind.

"You alright?" Suichi eventually asked. Hoji nodded and propped his sword up in his lap against his shoulder.

"My back hurts a bit" Hoji admitted. "That's about it physically."

"Mentally?" Suichi asked. No response. "You're not an open man, I know that. Still, you should at least see Lady Unohana. She can help you more than I could."

"Drugs and booze won't lift this kind of pain" Hoji said. "Maybe booze will, but I'd need a lot of it." Hoji forced out a brief chuckle and Suichi even laughed once at his remark. "Honestly, I don't know what to feel right now. I'm kind of swimming in my emotions..."

"What kind of emotions?" Suichi asked. "I've witnessed grief before, trust me. There were times early on when I wanted to break my cover and jump out from the wall, screaming 'I'm sorry! It was me!'...That's just how we have to live our life. We're soldiers of chance. Manzenryuu. If one of us gets an arm lobbed off we can only be hopeful that we run into a place like this to get it sewn back on."

"Tch" Hoji smirked. "I guess that's true. But you must feel similar, right? You're not entirely emotionless...I've never seen Shin struggle to that point. In fact...I can't remember when Shin wasn't able to just brush off his shoulders and walk away from the poor bastard he just cut up...I've only seen him as a winner and a fighter. Seeing him like this...I feel like I've lost faith in what I gave to him."

"That's understandable" Suichi said.

"Not really" Hoji said. "I mean, Shin's power destroyed an entire town accidentally. He moved the clouds and warped the whole sky on a whim! He was a god, a real pure-blooded Shinigami for a second there! Now, after accessing all that power and strength for only a moment, he's nearly dead. It makes me, his student, think that true power is just impossible. If I get that strong, and I can't take that hit, am I just gonna die!?" Suichi couldn't phrase what he wanted to say. He felt like any of his own personal advice would get swept away in a quick brush by Hoji.

"Well, I don't know" Suichi finally said. "Honestly, Hoji, I can't relate to your problem. My only moral problems come from having to kill people who can't fight back. You'd never do that, and neither would Shin. I'll say this: turn this dread into excitement like you always seem to do. Shin's brush with death shouldn't be a barrier to hold you back, but a limit for you to push. The sooner you surpass his limit, the sooner you'll be able to say 'Look Shin, I'm just as powerful as you now!' And I know how much you want to say that."

"Not that I'll ever get to" Hoji said with a forced smile. "Once he wakes up, he's gonna realize the same thing and train until the damn sky starts falling...again. Tch!" Suichi was confident in Hoji's good mod, fake or not.

_He'll figure it out_ Suichi told himself. Then he left, and Hoji was alone once again to stare at the fish and think...

* * *

"How is he?" Rei asked the shadow on the wall. Down fell Suichi, reporting on his assumed theory.

"Just like I thought" Suichi said. "I have no idea how an animal's mind works..."

"Be patient with your friends" Rei scolded. Suichi looked down at her, mending the broken and tattered robes of Suichi's friends on the floor, and returned to staring blankly ahead.

"Assassins aren't known for their empathy" Suichi admitted. "It's a little hard to put myself in his place."

"Is it really?" Rei asked. "You thought he'd be afraid, and and he was. You can't say that you can't relate to fear..." Suichi picked up on the point Rei tried to give him and remembered something. A long time ago, in his early apprentice years of the art of assassination, Suichi found himself under the care and mercy of Rei Unohana.

"_Thank you..." Suichi of the past said to his merciful caregiver over him. Rei in the past was a pretty and refined as she is now, and back then she had no slack in her genius of medicine either. Suichi, lacking most of the muscle on his shoulder, was lying on the floor and breathing heavily._

"_I needn't thank me" Rei said, wringing out a damp cloth. "I live to help those in dire need of help like yourself. Anyone who is injured or seeking guidance, I will take in. Anyone without food, I will feed. Without clothing, I will clothe. Without protection, I will defend. Tell me my friend, what brought you here?"_

"_I'm not sure anymore" Suichi admitted. "I was sent to kill a dangerous man, and he attacked me before I could fight back...I'm sure it must be hard to take care of a killer like me. A woman as peaceful as yourself, getting caught up in the affairs of the war...I'm sorry."_

"_Doing your duty is no reason to be ashamed" Rei said. "Sometimes, life becomes a chore to people, and then it loses its meaning."_

"_What meaning?" Suichi asked._

"_To be happy" Rei said, "is the only truth about the meaning we live. Some are sent here to the spirit world as a second chance to live their lives with us and inspire the masses with their adventures. It is always the poor souls who grow to be strong, the weak wills in life that are the strongest. You are not doing anything wrong, you are just living your life as it must be lived. That is my opinion."_

"_That's a fairly partisan opinion for a medic" Suichi said straining a laugh. Rei smiled down at him. Her smile, warm and motherly, was more heart-mending that was her pulsing healing power from her hands. There was peace in Suichi's mind just being around her..._

...and there still is, deep within his mind.

"Shin Kenpachi is phenomenally strong" Suichi said. "Seeing a man that great fall in battle...a student like Hoji would feel indescribable pain. I suggest you talk to him about it. Try and get the guilty burden of surpassing the impassable off his mind."

"You are still very impatient" Rei said. She set down her needle and thread to sigh and stand up to her old assassin friend. "Do you remember what I told you when you demanded to leave early?"

"You didn't say anything" Suichi said, remembering something that apparently made him edgy at his gracious host. "I asked when I'd be done with my physical therapy so I could go out again and you hit me! On the head!"

"Well, I felt threatened by you" Rei said. She turned with a hand to her face and a jesting smile, nearly laughing. "A big, strong assassin was in my home all that time. How was I to know you wouldn't turn on me?"

"You're twisted, Lady Unohana!" Suichi said in his tired tone expertly developed from talking to Shin and Hoji for so long. "Very well, then. To avoid getting hit by you again, I'll just leave those two to their fates...still, what do you think of Shin right now?"

"I haven't really met him yet" Rei said, "but I'm already impressed by him. I dare say, despite his reputation, we may grow close as I have with all my children."

"I see" Suichi said. He picked himself off the wall and left for a hallway. "You'll see where this impatience comes from in time, Lady Unohana..." Rei looked over her shoulder with a smile, then went back down to her sewing.

* * *

Back in the garden, Hoji had moved from his hidden cove of plants at the pond and found a nice, big rock in the middle of the grounds. He unsheathed his sword, grabbed it in reverse grip, and threw it hard into the rock.

"Tch" Hoji grunted, crouching down at the knees to face his sword down eye-to-hilt. "Okay, Torakaze, you're technically my soul. Tell me, what should I do? I feel like there's a huge ceiling above me and pushing too hard will make me run into it and die. Then again, I know Shin will survive, he'll be alright, and then we'll continue to train while he pulls steadily ahead of me. Tell me...sword...what should I do?"

_How the Hell should I know?_ Torakaze said snidely. _It's your body. If training's gonna kill you, then don't train. If you honestly believe that you'll die if you pull too far ahead, then stay where you are and get left behind!_

"...Odd" Hoji mused. "I thought my inner self would be more comforting."

_What makes you think you deserve comfort?_ Torakaze asked. _You never pity anyone, regardless of their position, and you certainly aren't pitying Shin. All you're thinking about is yourself right now! If you honestly cared about your friend and mentor, you'd be at his bedside praying for him and doing everything you can!_

"I already know that nothing I do will help him" Hoji argued. "Don't try and make me, and by association yourself, look bad just by twisting the facts! I know if I could help Shin I would. If he needed my leg with no chance of mine growing back, I'd lop it off now!"

_I wouldn't let you_ Torakaze said.

"Then I'd use a rock and beat it off!" Hoji shouted. He shot up to his feet, ignoring the pain in his back and legs, and stared raising his voice to the voice inside his head. "Dammit, Shin's like my brother! Hell, he _is_ my brother! We've slain hundreds together, Hollows and shinigami!"

_Then why are you so scared?_ Torakaze asked. Hoji sneered and tilted his head at the sword. _Do you honestly think you need to be scared over this? Do you know who you are anymore? You are Hoji Araijin, proud fighter and warrior of the Araijin clan, follower of the destructive rogue Shin Kenpachi. Not matter who lives or dies in your life, that's who you will always be. Now, if Shin could see you now what would he say...?_ Reaching that revelation of thought, Hoji abandoned his self-pity, answered his question, and picked up his sword.

"Go for everything!" Hoji shouted, practicing swings in the garden. "Abandon everything and stare nothing down over the pit of death! Stab for the heart! Fake them out and kick them in the face! Hit with the blunt edge of your sword to off their timing. Then, RUUUUUUSH!!!" In a mad dash of brimming confidence, Hoji flash-stepped across the garden and stabbed his sword up to the hand guard into the white walls surrounding the open grassy stretch of yard. Then, spinning around, he slashed out and pointed forward with his off hand curled like a claw at his chest.

"I am a warrior!" Hoji shouted. "No matter what happens, that is what I shall be! And when I die, if I die with too much power or because I didn't have enough, I will die as a warrior! That's what Shin would tell me, what he'd show me. That' show he lives. If Shin dies it only means he died showing me what true power really is! Even if I die...I will achieve true power like him!"

_So what does this mean...?_ Torakaze asked, pushing Hoji just once more into his original frame of mind. A smile lit up his face, he took his sword in a reverse grip and crossed his arms to grip it little-finger ends of his hands touching.

"Rip and Tear, **Torakaze!!!**" And in a burst of sharp wind and ecstatic glee, Hoji released his fears and dread and anxiety with his sword. "Let's get to training! TCH!" Suichi observed, from afar inside the mansion, and saw Hoji with his conscience clear doing stretches and punching exercises in the yard.

"Be patient" Suichi told himself. "I guess that is the best strategy, isn't it?" He looked behind him inside Shin's room, and saw the manic man still sleeping and snoring loudly. "...Yep. Patience is a virtue only a hard liver like myself can take to heart. Hoji...continue teaching me with your impatience, please..."


	49. Shin Kenpachi's Meaning

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"What is his status?" Rei asked. A medic wearing a bandanna sporting a red cross in the middle draped over his eyes turned with a mouth agape with shock and quivered out an answer.

"I-A...Apologizes, Lady Unohana" the young man stuttered fearfully. "I can't really tell if he's better or not. Frankly, I'm too terrified to look directly at him...his pressure is still up, though, if that counts for anything."

"Thank you" Rei said. "Please look after Hoji Araijin. He's still training in the garden."

"Still?" the young medic asked.

"Yes" Rei replied. "He refuses to stop. It seems to help him cope." The young medic bowed on his way out and hurried to the garden. Hoji was indeed still training, a solid week of swinging his sword and punching the wall with his bare hands until he made a rather large hole. His body was in shambles and his mind and pressure wavered constantly, but something kept him sprinting forward. Rei walked carefully over to Shin's body to examine him with a quick sweeping of her hand, but she noticed something odd in the corner.

"Not again" she lamented. Upon a sword healing stone surrounded by retreating streams of incense smoke Shin's Shikei sat just peeking barely out of its sheathe. "I don't know what that sword is doing to Kenpachi's body but it won't help. Shin must recover slowly. If his pressure would come back to him all at once..." Rei didn't vocalize the results of a massive implosion of spiritual energy, as the result would be obvious and deadly. She went on her way, seeing nothing she could do, and left Shin to his silence...

* * *

Inside Shin's mind, constant swirling clouds of red and blue dashed across a blank sky of gray and a sun of ethereal, shining black. He sat at the base of the mountain of ruins that had built up since the last time he had seen the world. Now twisted visions of metal protruding from the stone structured walls of a myriad broken homes were clearly visible forming a spiked peak of jagged metal.

"Is this it?" Shin asked himself, eying down a sword with a partially shattered hand guard. All the swords, the whole armory's worth sticking from the ground like shafts of short bamboo. He looked at the blade and its shaft, at the curve and the edge and the overall length and the torn thread of the tassel before making the decision and tossing it swiftly into the ground. "How many swords are here?"

"More than enough" mused the prophetic voice far above. Bursting into view in a blast of char-black flames was Shikei, Shin's spirit, standing on unseen bony feet at the highest spire of twisted metal framing. "Take a good, fine look, Shin Kenpachi. These are the lives you have taken, those you carry with you no matter where you go. Each sword is one whose spirit and breath you have forever broken."

"Really?" Shin asked. He slumped down, arms propped on his knees, and gazed ahead lethargically. "What a drag. I thought there'd be a lot more...What's with the sky though?"

"The sky?" Shikei repeated. "Why would you want to know about that? You can't get to it."

"Of course I can" Shin said. "I decided a long time ago that I would go beyond the sky as soon as I could. Even if I have to rip the wings off a Hollow and use them myself to push past the blue border of my world, I'd do it..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shikei asked.

"Heh" Shin laughed with a smirk, "I don't even know. I thought pushing my limits would ultimately reward me, but now look. I'm basically dead. I'm not even sure why I'm bothering to sift through all these swords. Mine isn't among them..."

"Then why try?" Shikei asked, now behind Shin. "If you know that something isn't there, or can't be done, or is otherwise impossible, why attempt? You'll only be disappointed or die as you try."

"Heh heh" Shin laughed, now twice with a happy smile and glare. "Somebody's gotta try. Why don't you try to wake me up if I'm not dead?" Shin hopped down from his outcrop on the mountain and started walking leisurely among the swords. He touched every one of them while Shikei watched from up high, smiling with its skull-head at his host's perseverance.

"Hope is fragile, isn't it?" Shikei asked, Shin hearing in his own mind. "All it takes is a single push for someone to be flung far over the edge."

"I haven't given up hope" Shin said. "It'll take more than just dying a little bit to abolish my hope."

"But what about the others?" Shikei asked. Shin had to stop and think for a moment how his friends, his fellow warriors, would respond to his death. "It is a ripple in the pond that has broken those two rocks of men, although I would argue Suichi is more of a very dense branch than a rock like Hoji is."

"Hoji can't break" Shin argued. "He's...uh...unbreakable? I don't know, but something like this wouldn't shake him. He'd just brush it off and go train so he can tell me what a slouch I was in the time I was comatose."

"Are you positive about that?" Shikei asked. "He's just as human as you are."

"That's a low blow" Shin said, taking a sturdy saber from the ground and holding it on his shoulder. "I haven't considered myself human since I died the first time and came to this world. I'm a phantom, a ghost. A shinigami, god of death. That's the literal translation, you know, and gods aren't human."

"What mythology from your world had inhuman gods?" Shikei asked. "I can't think of any who showed no error or lapse in judgment, and I'm you. What does that say about you position?" It was that Shin had no position. "So much depth, they have perceived in this muddy puddle of blood you spilled. So much that they are afraid to look into it anymore. Why? You're battle was just as unimportant as both of theirs and somewhere they know it."

"What are you getting at?" Shin asked, glaring daggers at his phantom self. Shikei started to dissolve into the air as a cloud of black fire with a nefarious laugh.

"You think to highly of yourself, is all" Shikei said. "Your death would have been pointless. There is nothing for you to find here...no mysteries or secrets. All that you see is all that can be seen. Shin Kenpachi, there is nothing here for you at all!" And that was that. No matter how hard afterwards, Shin could not manifest his spirit to walk and talk among him, and over his head the sky froze with evil clouds of black that taunted Shin below.

* * *

A week passed since then. Still, Shikei did not come forth. In his absence Shin had found a way to train himself to pass the seemingly infinite time. Within the confines of his secured sub-conscience, he was training using an uncorrupted piece of long metal as a shaft and a sword as a blade. With those two items he pierced the sword near through the metal pole near the tip and made a scythe. With that he trained himself to find a style that would suit his new weapon if it ever decided to show itself again.

"I can't give up" Shin declared. His voice echoed loudly through the air in his dream world. He took his impromptu scythe from its draped position and spun it around with the palm of his hand. The dust on the ground kicked up as he increased the speed. "I have determined the main principle of this style. It is...rotation!" Shin started flourishing with his pole-scythe, spinning and twirling it around with simple motions of his hands and arms. He caught and continued the motion of the spinning scythe to rip apart the very air with the bladed end.

Still spinning it like a deadly baton, he passed it from hand to hand and walked forward in a jumpy gait. He nearly skipped his way over to a sword sticking from the ground, and bounced his scythe to and from its sides. Using to force with the deflection he encountered, Shin made tens of notches in the corroded metal blade with what looked like only one motion. Then he let the pole hook and spin around his neck several times before grabbing it loosely and spinning it overhead. He picked out a target across the field and set his scythe down, both hands gripped and scythe no longer in motion.

"But is this really it?" he asked himself. He took his scythe in one hand and pointed the blade behind him, gripping the end of the rod with his left hand over shoulder. "Is this why I died? To train? I could train in the sun or under the stars or in any damn storm just the same...this can't be all there was to death..." In his solemn prose the ground expanded away from him, the swords and ruin mountain now far away in the distance.

"You see too many fish" Shikei said "in this puddle of blood." The phantom hovered unseen in the sky, blocking the already black orb of light that cloaked the world in grainy darkness.

"I see too much meaning in my death?" Shin shouted upwards. "How is that possible? Of course I see meaning in my death, I died!"

"You're alive!" Shikei shouted back.

"I still died" Shin argued.

"You're ALIVE!" Shikei roared. Shin backed up away from the billowing phantom's shadow and readied his scythe in front, just in case. To his surprise, it was indeed his own scythe, and not his cheap mental imitation he spent so long mastering. "If you want to take something away from this dream let it be that: a symbol of your absolute power. The dark clouds overhead are those that follow you everywhere, the overseers of death and doom."

"So that's it?" Shin asked. "My death, this whole month of recuperation, was just incidental for me. I wasn't set to learn anything or harvest any skills. All I was to do was sit around and wait for my body to move again."

"Yes" Shikei droned.

"You're too blunt" Shin said. "Anyway, I can't believe you. There was something behind my death I was supposed to find. How am I supposed to know that this wasn't it?" As he referenced the field of death in his soul the ground suddenly came back around him, neat and evenly spaced about. "Was I supposed to learn a lesson by these graves, these dead warriors?"

"Nope" Shikei plainly answered.

"What about that?" Shin asked, nodding his head behind him. "The destruction and dread I've caused on my path?"

"That's just a pile of broken crap, Shin" Shikei pointed out. Shin felt himself swelling with rage from his own reflective apathy and uncaring for the aparent suffering of all those he killed and the views he had of them. Shikei was pushing further to an unseen edge, and then when Shin saw it he realized just what purpose he was to learn: Codependance.

"There is nothing here for me" Shin reiterated. "Is that true?"

"That's right" Shikei said, descending quickly to the ground.

"No hidden secrets on m bankai or any other form of power you can take" Shin added. "All that's here is what I see."

"That's right" Shikei responded.

"So then..." Shin said, baring a snarling smile on his face, "I guess I learned nothing from my death. I'll just have to go right back to training once I can walk, right?"

"Yeah" Shikei sighed with pride. He started hovering into Shin and disappeared. The scythe he draped over his shoulders again became his sword, shaking and pulsing with his deadly, black energy, and he began slowly sheathing it with a smile.

"My sword is my soul" Shin mantra'd "and my soul rests with my sword. They are one in the same, and I am within my sword at all times. My reflection always shows through the darkness and casts shade in the light. Shin and Shikei are the same being..." and with a clang he sheathed his sword, formulating a final thought as the clouds covered the sky in his world. "Maybe that's why we can't get along..."

* * *

The room was vacant, full of stagnant air, and looked curiously red upon his first glance. Shin finally awoke, his chest repaired and the curious mist around him retreating out the unknown door. His body was not only wrapped in warm blankets but bound down to the bed he was on which was weighted down to the floor. He looked up and saw his sword, sheathed, on his chest.

"You're annoying" Shin chided. "If you can move, cut me loose. I need to take a walk..." Just then, the door opened and the mist blasted out. A terrified man with a cover on his mouth gazed inside. "Oh, hey. Can you help me here buddy?" The young medic just stuttered in fear, as only through his adept medical eyes could he see the swirling black fog that had stuck to Shin Kenpachi's bedside like kelp to the banks of a river. The medic felt so strong a sense of vertigo from staring into a puddle the depth of an ocean that he fainted on the spot, away from Shin.

Shin blinked. "...Oi...unbind me here...hello...?"


	50. Death Walks the Halls

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

0

In the garden the servants and waiting women all were gathered and neatly seated to watch the surprisingly energetic Hoji train. This was his third straight day out of the week training, practicing his sword sings and his unarmed palm thrusts in the open air. Unohana had granted him full access to her home, but the gracious and nearly mad Hoji had stayed outside to sleep and eat everyday since he recovered. The only ones not shocked as they watched were Suichi, who was used to these exuberant displays of power, and Unohana who was able to calmly and passively observe on the deck of her manor.

"He's very serious about his physical state" Rei observed.

"He's a warrior" Suichi, sitting on the grass in front of her, explained. "I've seen him get jittery when he had to stay still in the sunlight for too long. If he doesn't train, I'm willing to bet his spirit pressure would build up ad he'd blow a vein."

"How awful" Rei sighed. "Being trapped in a life like that. You can't tell me he's truly happy, not knowing if he'll live through his next fight or not."

"He lives only to die" Suichi said. "He's told me that plenty of times. Shin too."

"They seem like decent men" Rei said. "I'm not too surprised that they have decided upon such a chaotic lifestyle, but honestly, such bland cycles of rest and unrest must get tiresome after a while."

"They make life interesting" Suichi admitted. "Personally, I don't get them either, but they get themselves so I can't exactly tell them they're wrong." Rei smiled down at Suichi , then carried her smile up to look at Hoji with her soft eyes. His brow was soaked utterly with sweat and his pigtail looked ready to come undone from the tension and greasy unknemptness of it. "I just wish they'd bathe a bit more. Sleeping near them is somewhat of a chore sometimes..." Suichi managed to pull a light titter from the stoic Rei before she became her passive, warm self again.

"Lady Unohana!" shouted a panicking voice form inside. A young orderly medic in training came running and fell down into a full, head-first bow as he approached Rei. "Lady Unohana, you must assist us! He...he's resisting!"

"He?" Rei calmly asked. "He who?"

"Shin Kenpachi!" the orderly said shouted. "He's awake and walking the halls with his sword! He could rampage at any moment and we would be unable to defend ourselves!"

"Shin's awake?" Suichi asked. "Hmm. I guess that explains this stabbing sensation at the base of my spine. I forgot just how to be properly terrified of him, he's been out so long."

"Please try to direct him out here" Rei said. "His skin has been isolated from the light for far too long. If he truly wishes to rampage, he won't be able to do it out here, as the sensation of the sun will be too much for him to handle all at once."

"We-we'll try, my Lady" the orderly said in a panic. He got back up and ran back down the hall, keeping a hand on his sword. Just as he rounded a corner, Rei saw him flying back from it and slamming into the wall. Then, from that corner, a stern figure of black came marching. It was Shin, looking tired and serious as always. Suichi got up and started towards him.

"You're finally up!" Suichi yelled. Everyone looked back to confirm the hideous sense of danger in their backs, and even Hoji held his sword in ready position over his head to glance over his shoulder. Shin, having abandoned a swift and somewhat stylized escape, had the futon he was blanketed with wrapped around him and hemmed up like a kimono.

"Was I out?" Shin asked. He met Suichi halfway and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You haven't been working your deltoids. If you want a ridiculous body like mine, you'll have to actually _work_ at it."

_What?_ Suichi said internally. This behavior, to his knowledge, was most un-Shin like. "Wh-w-uh-what?" Suichi verbally stammered.

"Where's Hoji?" Shin asked. He looked over Suichi's shoulder and saw the very stern and emotionless woman attempting to stare him down with an invisible wave of pressure. "Who's that?" he asked, pointing at Rei. Unconsciously, he released his own pressure to counter hers and it nearly blew her away. Her blank irises shrank exponentially and her eyes shot wide open.

_What is this monstrous power!? _Rei demanded. _I can sense that he isn't even trying and he's already overpowered my submission force? What terror is this man...?_

"Yo, SHIN!" Hoji yelled. Shin finally looked over and saw Hoji in a far-spread ring of observing spectators. Shin started walking over, the bystanders forming a wide breadth for him to walk through, and he stopped short of the beginning of the training circle.

"How've you been?" Shin asked, arms crossed.

"Great" Hoji replied. "How was death?"

"He's a jack-ass" Shin scoffed. "You've been training?"

"Wanna help?" Hoji asked.

"Surely" Shin agreed. He discarded his heavy cape and his tattered robes to train next to his favorite student with his still unhealed but minor battle wounds visible. His back and stomach were bruised from the force that incapacitated him, and his arms looked like they were recently burned.

"Did you learn anything from your dreams?" Hoji asked as he and Shin made synchronized movements with their swords.

"I don't feel like lying to you so early in the morning" Shin answered. "Just shut up and train."

"Tch." Hoji scoffed with a grin. "It's hard to stand being your friend sometimes...just sometimes."

0

After the first few hours of sparring and the month without food, Shin was stalking the halls of the manor with Hoji in tow looking for something to eat. Any pantry he could raid and any meal he could steal would do. Suichi, meanwhile, attempted to clear his way as the entire staff of Unohana's home feared Shin above anyone else. His presence now invoked a mad sense of dread and death that only came by holding a sword to one's throat. Suichi could recognize that fear, although he didn't actively respond to it, and Hoji didn't care about it. In the back of his mind his only real though was the relief that Shin was up and about, better than ever.

"Uuuuugh" Shin groaned. "Fooood...just an apple or eight, maybe some ribs. I'd eat a Holloe if one's around. Please, food...my mouth...please..."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Listen to you whine. A measly month without eating and you sound like a damn child. What's wrong with you."

"It's hard to be manly" Shin explained "when you're teetering at the edge of starvation. Besides, how else am I supposed to get some service. All these jerks are hiding form me."

"In their defense" Suichi began "you are pretty frightening...and you _do _have your sword out." It was true, of course. Shin was allowing his sword to breath the open air just like him, and so he let it hang at his waist out of its sheathe.

"Leave Shikei alone" Shin demanded.

"That's its name?" Suichi said with a quiver of fear. "It's...fitting." _It's too fitting. A sword called 'Death Penalty'...may as well tattoo your chest with the phrase 'you're going to die now'..._

"Wait" Hoji ordered. He sniffed the air with his nose up high, taking in large wiffs at a time, and unsheathed his own sword suddenly. "I smell it. There is food nearby!"

"Hooray" Shin cheered emotionlessly. "What's your sword have to do with it?"

"It can control the air" Hoji said, "so maybe she can lead us to the food based on where the smell's coming from."

"Wait" Shin demanded, "'she'? You're sword's female?"

"Yeah" Hoji answered. Shin and Suichi began building up a light laughter that soon became whole chuckles.

"Oh, you're such a manly man" Shin joked. "It shows in your soul, doesn't it!" Shin then burst out in full laughter with Suichi quickly following. Hoji bit his lip to try and hold his anger, but it proved useless. He dashed at Shin with his sword, forgetting about why he got it out, and made a hasty swing. Even while laughing, Shin was able to pull out his sword and block it. Something felt seriously wrong as Hoji's sword stayed on Shin's, so he quickly pulled away.

"Eh?" Shin grunted quizzically. Hoji turned around and saw Rei standing and staring oddly at them all, like she was observing wild animals in some unknown ritual. Then, after seeing Shin doubled over and holding his stomach in pain, she couldn't help but give in with a short, quiet laugh. "Eh?" Shin grunted again.

"Use words" Suichi chided.

"You people are quite interesting" Rei remarked. "Sir Kenpachi, if you wish to eat all you must do is inform me. I will make sure you are given the most medically sedative meal your body can handle."

"Is that good?" Shin asked, not totally understanding his hostesses vernacular.

"Yes" Rei simply answered. "Please though, you must tell me of your travels and battles. I am anxious with curiosity about your battles with the Kyuuhiouto and the giant, nosed Hollow."

"Ah, that" Shin said. "Nah, I'm tired of talking about that thing. IT was just another stupid Hollow. That Adjuchas bastard Danzig gave me a pretty decent fight, though."

"Adjuchas?" Rei repeated. "I was unaware the Hollows in the outlying areas had reached such a state already. If the patterns are correct..." and she stopped mid-sentence to look up very nobly at her guests. "So, what would you like to eat?"

"Can you back up a step?" Shin asked.

"If you wanna hear about our fights" Hoji proudly began "just sit down with us to eat and we'll tell you. I'm all for it, are you Shin?"

"Sure thing" Shin said. "I have some questions too, actually. Namely about those damn Hollows."

"I'd be more than happy to answer your questions" Rei said. "There is one thing I'd like you to do after we have had our meal, however. Just so I can get to know you three a little better."

"What's that?" Suichi asked.

"I'd like to spar with you" Rei said. The boys, particularly Hoji and Shin, were taken aback and straightened up in response. Shin, however, quickly doubled back down out of the pain in his empty, concave stomach.

"Agreed" Shin said. "Now let's eat. I'm seriously contemplating eating my own damns word right now!"

"He'll do it!" Hoji shouted. "He's eaten the bark off a tree before out of hungry madness! SOMEONE GET US SOME DAMN MEAT!!!" Rei chuckled lightly at the antics of her guests but Suichi remained stern. He was the only one who took that offer seriously, as he knew just how serious she was about it. Suichi had a better grasp of not only his current surroundings but the proper world of nobility that Shin and Hoji ever would. He knew the dangers of engaging Rei Unohana in anything more dangerous than a game of Shoji.

No assassin had ever entered this complex with the mission to take a life and came back alive. She was the true monster here...


	51. Rei Unohana versus Hoji Araijin

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

After their meal and stories were finished, the boys all sat contently across from their gracious hostess in the hall with only one building a sense of dread. Suichi sat properly, legs folded and hands on his lap, out of the respect and fear he had for the impending opponent in his duel. Shin had his legs crossed and his back slouched and Hoji was just lazing all over the place, noisily chewing and eating meat.

"Those are quite some amazing fights you've all had" Rei said. "And Shin, I believe the large-nosed Hollow you mentioned was not truly a Hollow at all."

"How's that?" Shin asked.

"You see" Rei began, "in my research and my mother's research, I have come to the conclusion that Hollows have certain patterns of evolution that they go through. Once one Hollow becomes powerful enough, it transforms into a giant form called a 'Gillian' Hollow."

"Really?" Shin said. "Huh. I thought it was a little big to be a Hollow."

"Well, in technical terms" Rei continued, "it is a Hollow. After eating enough other Hollows, a normal Hollow will become engorged with power. The only way to compensate that power is to grow immense, like a shinigami's sword."

"Alright" Shin said. "So, they cannibalize until they get too fat to be normal, then they shape-shift...Hollows are weird."

"That's...no" Rei said. "That's quite wrong. Gillian Hollows are the most animistic Hollows there are! They have no single mind or way of thinking. They're essentially giant hive-minds of all the other Hollows' they've eaten. An Adjuchas Hollow is a Gillian that has eaten even more Gillians out of madness and thusly regained a sense of individualism in the Hollow world. I have not yet been able to prove it, but I theorize that there are even more castes and sub-species of Hollows out there."

"Cool" Shin said. He took a bite out of an apple that reduced it instantly to a core and chewed on it for a moment. "Hollows are weird."

"What a solid opinion" Suichi mumbled.

"Well, we can talk later" Rei decided, standing up. A fleet of maids and butlers came in from the walls and quickly grabbed the table they ate at. Then, they fled with it and cleared the room of all décor. Rei started slowly unsheathing her sword, inviting the boys to do the same. They each stood up slowly, and prepared themselves. Suichi kept himself limber and ready to jump or pounce, Shin put his hand on his sword, and Hoji noisily slurped the last scrap of meat from his face.

"Suichi" Rei said, pointing at his with her pearly-white sword, "come at me however and whenever you please." Suichi audibly gulped. He drew out his sword, held it in front of him and measured his attack.

_It honestly doesn't matter what I do, does it?_ Suichi thought. _No matter what, I'll end up dying..._

"Kick her ass, Suichi!" Hoji encouraged. Suichi looked at him with a very perplexed grunt.

"Don't underestimate her just because she's a woman" Shin warned. "She looks like she's used that sword before." Suichi nervously stepped forward and got into stance. Rei did the same, closing her eyes and keeping both hands with loosely gripped fingers and her sword pointing down to her left. She slowly opened her eyes, sending a calming wave across the room, and called upon her opponent.

"Come" she said. Suichi tensed up at her word and sprang forward. He stopped just short of her and swung down, keeping his cut from just barely scratching the floor. Rei had disappeared entirely.

"What...?" Suichi grunted out. He rose back up and Rei reappeared, sword at Suichi's throat. After a few seconds of nerve-wrecking tension, Suichi laughed and sheathed his sword. "I guess I'm dead!" Rei nodded her head and got back into her calming stance. Suichi slumped down and and sulked back behind the other two.

"He needs training" Shin and Hoji mumbled in unison.

"Hoji Araijin" Rei called, aiming her sword at him and and smiling, "I'd like to fight you now."

"TCH!" Hoji happily scoffed. He kicked up his legs and started walking forward. With his brow deeply furrowed and eyes glaring, he wiped his mouth and grinned with baring fangs. He drew out his sword and dipped his knees and arched his back. His sword arm was drawn down and his sword stared up from the ground at its target. Unohana adopted her maidenly stance once more while Hoji taunted with his tongue hanging out.

* * *

"You're not getting any distance from me" Hoji growled. "Anyone who holds a sword against me is my enemy!"

"That's a nice philosophy to have" Rei said. There was a pause where nothing happened, and Hoji ended up turning his head away and rubbing his neck.

"Tch" he scoffed. "You're almost too nice for me to want to fight. Jeez. Is this how you win in actually battles?"

"It's hard to tell" Rei said with a giggle. "I haven't killed anyone in a very long time." Shin's brow furrowed. She didn't say fight, she said kill.

_So she's an expert_ Shin said. _Hoji may be in over his head a little bit. Thankfully this is just a duel, so his life won't be in actual danger._

_Easy win_ Hoji told himself. _I haven't been training for nothing!_ "Alright! It's time to get fighting!" Hoji roared. He stood on his toes and let himself fall forward. Then he set his off-hand on the ground and balanced on his knuckles. He put down his other hand as well after putting his sword in his mouth and gripping it with his teeth. "_**Kaijuuryuu!**_"

"Kaijuu?" Rei repeated.

_This is a legal fighting style?_ Suichi skeptically asked. Shin had no comment, as he was too entrenched in observing the fight.

"Here we go!" Hoji shouted. He pushed forward with his arms and kicked back with his legs, making a pounce at Rei. Once again, she disappeared, but Hoji was not fooled. He quickly threw his arms and legs in the same direction and twisted his neck around. Rei barely evaded his twisting, corkscrew cutting attack from her position on the ceiling and came gracefully back down. As she stood up, one hair on her head split off from the neatly arranged rest and split in half.

"How monstrous indeed" Rei said with her face expressing no emotion. She took her sword up in her maidenly stance again and waited for Hoji's next move. Without bothering to turn around, Hoji crawled up onto the wall, pushed off of it with his arms and saulted clear over Rei's head. She turned and met him as he started swinging his arms in grabbing, clawing motions and blocked him with the blunt edge of her sword.

"It's scary, isn't it?" Hoji growled. "It's a style I've been contemplating on perfecting for a while now! It stemmed from just messing with people to messing with people while slowly wearing them down!"

"You'll get worn down first" Rei said. After defending so many times, she made a swipe at Hoji. He just had to tilt his head and lower himself to block.

"Will I?" Hoji growled, somehow speaking clearly despite the sword in his mouth. "You'll need to use just as much energy if not more to keep up with me! Even if we both get worn down at the same time, I'm still more unpredictable than you!" Again, Rei attacked, and this time with a stab. Hoji spun out of the way and let his sword follow through with his body. Rei ducked down and dodged him as he side-stepped and swung at her, then she made a sweeping kick that made Hoji jump. Once in mid-air, Rei reeled her back quickly and jabbed her elbow into Hoji's stomach. It was a soft blow for the monster-fighter, but it still sent him to the other wall on his feet.

"Nice hit" Hoji said. He got back on all fours and continued his assault. He made another pounce, but this time he stopped with his hands flat on the ground at Rei's feet. His legs followed through and ax-kicked at Rei's shoulder. One missed, but the other skimmed her robes and cut them. She raised her eyebrows to the hit she avoided and started moving away from the kicks. "Tch, now you're retreating?" Hoji said. "Too bad there are walls!" So Hoji now lifted himself higher up so his legs would reach closer to her head and started spinning around as he advanced. The sharp edge of his sword spun at her feet, a threat of debilitating danger.

_He's fighting with a very unorthodox style_ Rei told herself. _It relies more on unanticipated motion than skill, but planning such things takes great dedication to the style. Hoji Araijin has made a deadly art of taunting during a fight..._ Rei started hopping and blocking the rotating kicks with her sword. Her hops were timed perfectly so her feet cleared the sword, set down, and were able to push up again in time for the next swing to come around. Hoji smiled at that fact.

_It's not that easy, Rei!_ Hoji shouted internally. As his sword faced away, he tilted his head away from the swing direction. Rei was focused on Hoji's kicks and couldn't predict the movement of his sword if it would happen to change. To that end, her feet came down prematurely and she felt a nick. This made her lose balance, and before she knew it Hoji made two successive, powerful kicks that pushed with his legs and powered his body into a much faster spin that he brought his arms up across his chest to stylishly do. He twisted his neck into the swing this time, and cut Rei's feet at the joining bone between leg and foot.

"Nice hit" Shin quietly praised. Just as things looked up, Rei slammed her sword into the ground to stop Hoji's sword from making another rotation. The whiplash nearly broke his neck, but instead it left him in paralysis of fear from having his head twisted off his body from the inertia. Rei took the opportunity to deliver an open-palm blow to Hoji's stomach so powerful it made his sword hover in the air as his body flashed across the room into the wall. Shin's head darted curiously from Hoji's groaning body to Rei down on her knees. In a flash, her wounds were healed and she was up again.

* * *

"You are impressive in physical strength alone" Rei praised. "However, you rely too much on your strength to pull you through your battles. There are always other options that can deliver the same, if not better, results. For now, I can see few places that you can truly improve from. With a sword, you are an excellent fighter."

"You're damn right!" Hoji groaned loudly. Although Suichi winced at his vulgar way in showing respect, Rei picked up on his unique expression of thanks and laughed innocently about it.

"Here" Rei offered, tapping his sword with hers, "let's continue." She made a slight motion that tapped Hoji's sword and sent it spinning across the room at him. Hoji was still embedded into the wall and looked quite decommissioned. However, at the last moment before the sword came to cut him, he snarled with a grin and flashed out of the wall. He caught the sword by the very tip of the handle with the arch of his foot, leg drawn far back, and caught Unohana totally off guard.

"_**Kyougakusenkou!!!**_" he announced. He kicked his sword hard through the air and let it pierce Rei's shoulder all the way up to the hand guard. She looked quite surprised. Hoji suddenly flashed forward through the air, without even kicking off the broken wall, and took hi sword in reverse grip with his elbow pointed out to send the sword ripping down. "Physical strength isn't my only strength, y'know. Tch, if I thought that way I'd really be dead. No, I'm much stronger than you can analyze."

"Is that so?" Unohana said, voice unbroken and unchanged by the sword in her torso. "Well, I'm sorry. You see, even scientists can make mistakes." Hoji didn't notice until now, but there was a very familiar fire in his belly. He looked down and saw there was a sword in his belly as well, possibly invoking the fire of pain. "It seems that my blow is fatal, and yours is only debilitating. If you really wanted to win, you should have aimed at my head or my heart, not intentionally waste your only shot..." Hoji just bled from the mouth and grinned.

"Oi, Shin" Hoji lowly groaned. He turned around, her sword pulling moistly out from his gut and his from her shoulder, and took a few steps back toward his friend. "You're up..." Then he fell, the pain a bit too much for him to properly handle at the moment. Shin sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Can we patch him up first, please?" Shin asked. "Huh?" Rei had taken off her outer, black robe and was stretching her shoulder slowly. The wound was gone...already. It had been less than a few seconds and she was already healed.

"Certainly" Rei responded. "I am particularly anxious to see _your_ fighting style, Shin Kenpachi. I'll heal him up, and you and I can fight. I should warn you though, I will hold very high expectations of you."

"I'm alright with that" Shin answered neutrally. Rei rolled Hoji over carefully and began healing him. He was healed, quick as that, but he was still out from the shock of getting stabbed without noticing sooner. Perhaps he was in shock over how powerful his enemy was without his prior knowledge. Who knows. Regardless, Hoji was out with a smile on his face...

* * *

Kaijuuryuu: Monster Style  
Kyougakusenkou:Surprise Flash


	52. Rei Unohana versus Shin Kenpachi

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shin and Unohana stood and faced each other down in the mid-sized sitting room. They prepared themselves mentally and physically for their duel. She was expecting quite a challenge, and Suichi was dreading just how challenging Shin would decide to be until he realized that enough would be enough. Hoji was still out.

"Are you ready?" Rei asked. She was in her rather relaxed, maidenly stance and waiting for Shin to stop cracking his neck. After his neck, Shin stretched out and somehow cracked his legs, then he drew out his sword.

"Let's go" Shin said. His legs were facing away from Rei with his right in front, and he held his sword in his right hand with a very controlled but relaxed grip. His face was very plain in terms of emotional value. He didn't look too happy or dutiful or excited to fight. Suichi had a sense of hopelessness when he fought, Hoji was exhilarated, but Shin had nothing. He was just an empty-faced man at the moment.

"You may come at me" Rei offered "in whatever way you wi-" and suddenly a massive blast of pressure started barreling down on everyone. Rei's body was paralyzed from the pressing energy and her sword sank into the wooden floor of her own mansion. The walls began to peel, the floor began to creak and Rei could feel her joints rubbing and squeaking against each other uncomfortably.

_This..._ she thought, _this is unnatural!_

"Alright" Shin said, somehow leading his voice over the pressure. "I'm coming now-" Upon his first short step forward, Shin's foot broke the wooden floor and started sinking down. He retreated his foot and drew it in closer with his other one so the weight distribution wouldn't catch him off guard again and looked at the floors. "What kind of mansion has such shoddy floors?"

"It's not the floors!" Suichi shouted. "It's the pressure!"

"Really?" Shin asked. Rei had finally gotten a progressive balance with her own pressure worked out and was standing normally, but with a much more serious demeanor. She was no longer a smiling, gentle woman. She looked like a soldier ready to fight for her honor against an overwhelming opponent. "Alright" Shin said. He started running forward, ignoring the floor he broke, and took hi first swing against Rei. She was able, just barely, to block. Then, just as she recovered from the first swing, Shin threw the next. She caught the blade with her own and held it for a moment before Shin drew back and came in wit ha thrust. She made a desperate swipe with both her arms to push away Shin's sword and was just narrowly missed. Her robe got cut, however. That scared her.

"HAH!" Hoji suddenly shouted. He tiredly sat back up now that his wound was better and looked around. "Tch. It feels a little heavy in here. Is it raining outside or something?"

"Shin's dueling Rei" Suichi explained.

"Oh" Hoji said. "Did he win yet?"

"They just started" Suichi said.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, "I know that, dammit. Why hasn't he won yet?" Shin continued madly hacking away at Rei's defense, forcing her to retreat into a corner. He backed out of her effective range and waited for her to recover.

"Come on" Shin said, holding his sword down. "I won't force you into a corner, metaphorically or literally, just to win."

"Very well" Rei said. "Thank you." After she thanked Shin she promptly attempted to kill him by making flash-speed stabs at him Shin deflected and dodged them easily enough, but still leaned away out of instinct. After one particularly strong push, Rei's sword was brought out of her left hand over to her right side. Shin drew his sword arm back around his neck and brought his left arm around his back as well. Rei struggled to bring her sword up to block, and as a result her feet were weak on the floor. Shin's massive swipe that ended with his left hand curled in front of his face, sent Rei through the wall.

"Damn, Shin!" Suichi shouted in shock. "It's just a friendly duel! No reason to seriously try killing her!"

"Meh" Shin grunted. He otherwise ignored the worried mumblings of Suichi and continued through the wall to find Rei once more.

* * *

The blast Shin made sent Rei all the way out into the garden. She knew he was coming, as the black and unnaturally strobing sky overhead still resonated menacingly with his pressure. Rei quickly healed herself of all her internal ailments and warily prepared for Shin's next deadly move. She brought her sword up next to her right shoulder in both hands, a more traditional pose, and waited with a furrowed brow.

"This is unlike anything I've ever seen before" Rei told herself. "This scale of power, this absolutely conquering pressure, it's so deadly. So fierce! And yet, there is something calming about it as well. I dare say, Shin Kenpachi, his aura may in fact be-"

"Be what?" Shin asked. He flash-stepped into scene, and his pressure distorted reality so much that there was a delay between his arrival and his actual presence beings seen. Rei was so shock that she jumped back and readjusted her own pressure to counter Shin's. At last everything was balanced out, which meant that everything appeared subject to a silent but powerful gale in gray-scale. "Moreover, what's an aura?" Shin brought his sword up to his eye level and held it sideways, as if blocking his eyes so they couldn't meet Rei's.

"I can certainly answer that" Rei said, "but I doubt this black-and-white world is the proper place to do so."

"Agreed" Shin agreed. He extended his sword out in front of him and pointed it at her again, forcing a lump in her throat. "We'll discuss this stuff once we're done here." Shin dashed ahead and began attacking again. First he simply repeated quick horizontal swipes that Rei either blocked or dodged, then started making descending and rising cuts as follow-throughs to the horizontal attacks.

"I am curious, though" Rei said while blocking. "What style is this?"

"If you can talk while blocking" Shin said "I'm not throwing enough shots." Shin started going faster, throwing with his back and his hips together with his already powerful arm at the frantically blocking Rei. She seemed to be trapped, so she made a very desperate move. She forced Shin away with a kick to the stomach. "Oh, we can use our hands and legs to fight too?" Shin asked. Rei's kick did nothing but give her an opening. Shin pushed down on her leg and made sure it was on the ground before he grabbed her face and threw her across the garden in one swift motion. As she flew through the air, she regained her control and stayed in one position instead of flipping hap-hazardously. Shin was fast approaching, weaving between the increasing amount of growth as he got closer.

"You don't have a style, do you?" Rei asked on her way down. Shin came up under her as she descended with her sword pointing down. Shin caught it by pushing high over his head in an uppercut fashion and balanced her on his sword, but that proved to be a folly on his part. Rei took advantage of Shin's confusion and just stood on his sword with no intent to make an attack. "You just swing away, hoping you'll hit your target. But honestly, unless your target happens to be a Gillian or above-average sized person, they'll just keep dodging you."

"Then I'll switch up my game" Shin said. He dropped his sword and Rei in the process. Then, with a powerful kicking start, he lipped backwards and shot out both his legs to kick at Rei on top of his sword. Of course, she was gone and back on solid ground, but the gesture still served to intimidate her. Shin caught his sword as his body came back to the ground and pulled it in close with his right arm. His stance was reversed now, with his left leg and arm forward and his sword arm back. "If my opponent can dodge like a god I'll find a way to cut their legs. If they have impenetrable defense I'll wear them down and attack when they;re tired. If they're overwhelmingly strong then I'll outwit them. Any god who wants to fight me will have to face the reality that there are no gods in this world."

"Really?" Rei asked, regaining her controlled and calm attitude at last. "What makes you say that?"

"Because we're all technically 'gods' here" Shin explained. "There's no unreachable limit for any shinigami in this world, so we're all on an equal level of potential. We're all the same creature, and all of us just happen to be gods. There's nothing higher than a world full of gods, is there?"

"I suppose not" Rei quietly agreed. They went back to fighting now, but with a much better mood. Rei was back in her maidenly manner of defending and aiming for the throat, and Shin was smiling. His grin was halfway between crazy and pleasant, which forced Rei to stay on guard even more than just a crazy one for the uncertainty of just where his emotions would sway at such a point. Shin dug his feet into the ground suddenly and started whipping his arm around madly, creating a sort of slicing shield that forced Rei away. She bounced away, unaware of Shin's true speed and power. He flashed out of his blade barrier as it was still slashing with his sword wound tightly past his neck and eyes empty. He made a huge swing that scraped the edge of Rei's blade and forced her into a spin.

"This was fun" Shin said. "Let's do it again sometime."

"We aren't done yet" Rei said, braking her spin with a kick and a skidding landing. Suddenly, she got the cold and terrifying feeling that she was completely alone, not just on the battlefield, but in the world. It felt like she left the world and entered another, more intense one.

"Yeah we are" Shin said. He stood far away from her, cradling the handle of his weapon in his right hand and letting the rest of it lay on his shoulder. The scythe Shikei extended past his head and filled Unohana with dread. Suddenly, Shin was upon her with his normal sword, but the blow was powerful enough to knock her out anyway. "In truth, Rei Unohana, we were done a while ago..."

* * *

After the fight the pressure lifted and the men and women of the mansion were able to move freely once again. Most of them had something broken from the sudden force that Shin unconsciously produced, but it didn't keep them from running around to find their mistress.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, "I know they're outside, guys. Just head that way!"

"Let's go ahead, Hoji" Suichi said.

"Well we aren't medics" Hoji said.

"Lady Unohana can take care of herself and Shin" Suichi said.

"Not really" Hoji said. "If she's out of commission then she won't be taking care of anyone at the moment." Suichi, for some reason, held Hoji's assumption with a bit of merit. Shin definitely wasn't a push over, and he certainly had no tacts against fighting a woman. There was the very good possibility that Unohana was in a critical condition, but the way Hoji was leading Suichi through the halls, he may not be able to find out soon.

"Hoji, are you lost?" Suichi asked.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "If you don't start trusting me my foot's gonna get lost up your ass!"

"It was just a question" Suichi quietly said.

"There you are!" a medic girl called from down the hall. "Lady Unohana and Master Shin are in the garden. Please, come quickly!"

"Why us?" Suichi asked.

"Well..." the medic girl started embarrassedly, "none of us are quite brave enough to approach Master Shin to retrieve Lady Unohana's body."

"She was defeated!?" Suichi gasped.

"Tch" Hoji smirked, "I knew that bastard would give her a good fight! Where'd he get her at? The stomach? The sternum? Did he lop off an arm or a leg?"

"She's just out of it" the medic girl said. "There aren't any visible wounds on her, possibly because she healed herself already, but she won't wake up regardless of what Master Shin does!"

"Let's hurry, Hoji" Suichi ordered. Hoji nodded and they both flashed through the halls until they found a way into the garden. They threw open the doors and started for the most menacing patch of ground they could feel, and there they were. Shin with his sword sheathed in his lap and Unohana with a huge hole in the mid section of her robes and an exposed but perfectly healthy abdomen lying on the ground.

"Stomach" Hoji noted. "I'd've cut her through the chest. She's got a lot of meat there to dampen the blow, anyway." Shin sat sleeping with his eyes half open, staring constantly at the backs of his eyelids but still casting a demanding shadow around Rei. He won, but the effort he unknowingly pushed on himself so soon after waking from near death caused him to fall asleep. Suichi couldn't help but smile, for he knew somewhere in the world his true foes were encroaching upon him and when he was finally found they would only meet the cold, deadly steel of Shin and Hoji's swords, as well as his own.

"Damn, Shin" Suichi praised. "You've got some wicked strength in those arms, don't you?"


	53. Shin Kenpachi, Deathly Warrior

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

One day passed. Now it was Rei's turn to be bed ridden from Shin's overwhelming power. She survived the attack, of course, and now that her mind was clear she was her normal and gentile self with everyone else. Suichi still felt bad about not warning her properly before she fought Shin without expectations or preparations, but she argued that it didn't really matter that much. Hoji was very proud of the victory, but he was being rather stoic and hung around the crowds of servants in the corner of the room. Shin, of course, did his part by avoiding most of the staff by training outside with his scythe. No one would watch out of respect...and fear.

"Hey Shin!" called Suichi. Shin stopped in his practice and turned his head. "Lady Unohana wants to see you."

"Good for her" Shin replied. "She must have gotten stronger in that coma."

"No" Suichi said, "not to fight..." Eventually Suichi convinced Shin to sheathe his weapon and meet with Rei in her room. Shin found her room a bit too luxurious for someone of her standing. A humanitarian, he thought, should live in the same conditions as her people. Shin entered the room following the nervous Suichi with a slight scowl on his face.

"Hello, Shin Kenpachi" Rei greeted.

"Yo" Shin greeted back with a friendly hand wave.

"Please find a seat" she offered graciously. She threw off her covers and sat neatly on her own bed, facing her guests. Hoji walked over and sat next to Shin on the comfy floor-rug. "I want to thank you all for agreeing to duel me yesterday. It's been a long time since I could get some practical fighting in, and your input really helped me measure my own abilities."

"But you died against Shin" Hoji pointed out. "You died bad."

"Indeed I did" Rei admitted. "Shin Kenpachi, there is something incredibly off-setting about you. Upon meeting you I was able to discern that you were a terrifying person with a sword. Yesterday you proved it, you are frightfully powerful. I was certain, at many points in our duel, that you would kill me."

"I'm not sorry" Shin said. Hoji started sputtering laughter at the randomness of Shin's aside. "It was a duel. You were asking us to fight you within an inch of your life. Granted, I fought myself dizzy too."

"That is a concern of mine" Rei said. "Are you aware of your aura, Shin?"

"I don't know what that is" Shin said. "I assume it has something to do with pressure."

"Auras are elemental" Rei explained. "All things, even Hollows, have certain auras that incline them towards certain aspects of natural magic. Suichi, for instance, your aura is Ice, therefore you are more inclined to using Ice-based spells."

"Tch?" Hoji grunted.

"I mainly use Ice techniques" Suichi said "because they're easy for me. If I used a fire kido attack, like a Fireball or something, it would most likely blow up in my hand or shoot off in some random direction."

"That makes sense" Shin said. Hoji nodded as well, agreeing with Shin even if he didn't entirely understand the concept. "So what's Hoji's?"

"Wind" Rei said. "That goes almost without saying. His sword even has the word wind in it."

"You're right!" Hoji said. He took out his sword and stared it down. "That makes total sense! I can rip the wind like paper and create vacuums and crap. Cool! But, how does that explain my use of other kido spells that work just fine? Like Senkou no Shikyo?"

"That's just a destructive spell" Shin said. "I don't think it has an element. If it does, it must be lightning."

"Lightning and wind are on the same spectrum" Rei said. "The one thing you may not use as well would be earth-based kido or healing spells, as those are generally aligned with a water element."

"Cool" Hoji said. "I wonder why Torakaze never told me what her element was..."

"Her?" Shin repeated. "You're inner soul...is a woman? My, that speaks leagues about you, doesn't it?" Shin and Suichi started snickering away from Hoji who glowered back at them.

"Well what's Shin's element then?" Hoji huffed. Rei became very grave all of a sudden, which quickly wiped the smiles from the boy's faces and forced them to sit upright.

"It's difficult for me to say" Rei admitted. "There are elements that don't fall into any real realm of logic or spectrum like natural elements do. Shin Kenpachi's element seems to be something much less...solid. It is abstract in its spiritual form. It is an element that does not immediately exist in the natural world..."

"Hmm" Shin grunted. "So...you don't know?"

"I think I know" Rei said. "It's only a theory, a vague one at that, but it is plausible. Shin Kenpachi, I believe your aura is that of total darkness. A depth of pressing doom unlike any other in the world. You element is **Death**." This came as a slight surprise to Hoji and Suichi, who leaned away from the newly defined air around Shin. Shin himself wasn't too surprised, but he wasn't totally unmoved either. He drew out his sword just enough to look at its metal and see his reflection.

He saw a skull, not a face.

* * *

The three mighty fighters continued to lodge at the Unohana manor for a few more days. They used the facilities to their fullest, gained a rapport with the staff of medics and waiting women, and above all they left their significant impressions on everyone. It may not have been the first time that Shin gave others a sense of extremely cautious hope, but it was a very significant affair. Out in the garden, a few days after learning of their respective auras, Shin and Hoji were sparring. Now, they used their shikai weapons, and the fight was tremendous.

"Hoji!" Shin shouted. "Get down from there! I can't hack you to slivers of meat if your all the way up there!" Shin swung his scythe in vain from the ground while Hoji, high up in the windy sky, held fast to the whipping currents of wind that passed by. The claws of his gauntlets, Torakaze, let him tear into the wind and treat it as a huge wall he could scale at will. So long as there was moving air, Hoji could manipulate it.

"Screw you!" Hoji shouted. "You need to learn to dodge somehow, dammit!" Hoji, with his arms straight out and claws extended, dipped his chest down at Shin and threw his arms together with a metallic clap. The wind blew hard, then stopped for a moment. Shin propped his scythe up on his shoulder and tapped it impatiently, then flashed away as the ground ruptured and blew apart from the vacuum of destruction Hoji released. Hoji started slashing and rending the air with his claws, and the air followed through with many bladed waves of air that all went barreling at Shin.

"Don't worry" Telli said to the scared Natsumo, "we can regrow all that in a matter of days."

"Bu how long will it take to rebuild?" Natsumo said with a heavy degree of hopelessness. Shin flashed very close to them, then sped away, and the blades followed after him in a near-hit brush with the girls. "I'm just relieved that we don't have to try and fight these two" Natsumo admitted. "I don't think we could handle it..."

"Not even Lady Unohana could take a serious fight with Mr. Shin" Telli pointed out. Shin was running out of stable ground, and thusly he stood fast in one place and started spinning his scythe overhead in a circular motion. He used both his hands to keep the speed of his whirring scythe up and started rotating very slightly with his hips in the opposite direction his scythe spun. This created a sort of vortex that the air blades avoided and fell off of, and that forced Hoji down from the sky he inhabited.

"Oh damn" Shin groaned. Hoji dropped down to the ground before Shin could get out of his pose and clawed through the air to punch Shin in the gut. It moved him back, but didn't knock him away. Hoji was left wide open for Shin's attack, a quick jab with his scythe handle into his back and a knee to the solar plexus. Hoji stumbled away and started falling to the side, while Shin stood firm with his scythe in hand and shade over his eyes.

"Tch" Hoji grunted breathlessly, "you're good with that thing!"

"I should be" Shin said. "I wasn't just slacking off in my coma, you know. Some of us like training whenever we can because it makes us stronger, Hoji. I suggest you try it."

"Who're you talking to!?" Hoji shouted.

"Honorable shinigami!" a young man called from the manor. Shin and Hoji turned, curious to see if he was actually referring to them. "Lady Unohana request your presence for a special audience!"

"...huh?" the simple Hoji grunted.

"The chick wants to see us" Shin rephrased. Hoji had no trouble understanding that and deactivated his sword. Both he and Shin had gotten into the courteous practice of keeping theirs swords sheathed inside the manor out of respect for everyone's fear of them with their swords out. They walked the now familiar winding halls of wood, passed by many rushing young men and women, and eventually came to Rei's room in the center of the labyrinth mansion. Hoji opened the door and Shin entered, then Hoji shut the doors behind him.

"Hello?" Shin called. For some odd reason, Reis' room was devoid of life. She was not there.

"She must be waiting somewhere else" Hoji pointed out.

"Really?" Shin asked honestly. "Maybe she's turned invisible and is trying to ambush us, or perhaps she was revently dragged to Hell by some angry specter." Although Shin hid his sarcasm well behind a wall of apathy, Hoji couldn't help but nod and agree with total honesty.

"You really think so?" Hoji said. Shin slapped his bald head and started out of the room.

"I can sense her presence somewhere near the front of the mansion" Shin said. "Let's head there."

"Don't hit me like that" Hoji said. "It's demeaning!"

* * *

Hoji followed Shin closely through all the halls as the jogged until they came upon the opening corridor that led into the outside. Shin's first notice was that the sky far away was very dark, and the winds were blowing the clouds towards the manor. Then he saw Unohana and Suichi standing at the open front gate, looking outward. They stood just before the elegant white stone wall that surrounded the entire palace and the wooden gates that took five strong men at each door to open. Rei had her hands folded inside her sleeves, and Suichi stood on the balls of his feet with his arms crossed, a serious pose for him to take.

"Howdy!" Hoji greeted with a wave. "Say Rei, what'd you need us for? And Suichi, how'd you beat us here?" There was a very uncomfortable silence just then, the only sound being the wind as it swept over the flat stone flooring of the estate's inner grounds. Shin took the first daring step to break the tension.

"Something is wrong" Shin noted. Rei nodded. "You need our help with something, don't you?" Rei nodded again. "Regardless of the work, we will accept it."

"You're always too hasty Shin" Suichi said. "At least hear what you have to do first."

"I don't need to" Shin said. Rei and Suichi both slowly turned to Shin with very demure and serious faces. "I can tell when someone is truly troubles, as I have cause such trouble to many people. Unohana, you have a distressed air about you, one that cries out helplessly. You look like a mother watching her sons go out to a war they can't win...knowing you won't see them again. Someone is lost...correct?"

"Dude!" Hoji exclaimed. "How do you know all this stuff!?"

"You're even less patient!" Suichi pointed out. Rei sighed and tried to make herself comfortable enough to talk. She turned away from her huge gates and looked at Shin in the eyes.

"You are right, Shin Kenpachi" she said. "Someone close to me...someone I consider to be a son...he is in great danger. Please, if you can, bring him back." The sound of metal scraping and wind whipping briefly was heard. Shin and Hoji already had their swords out and ready, Shin's on his shoulder and Hoji's pointed at the ground with his free hand crossing over the other with curled fingers.

"Sure thing" Shin said. "What's the name?" This resounding courage and tenacity actually took Rei by surprise.

_They're so eager to help me?_ She thought. _Regardless of the reason, or lack thereof, that they may have to help me they still will? I haven't offered them anything and they haven't asked for anything in return...but these men will still help me. Shin Kenpachi, Hoji Araijin, Suichi...how can such good men exist in such a cruel world? _Rei's emotions swelled up inside and she started to weep, but with a maiden smile on her face.

_Oh great_ Suichi thought, _now I feel bad for wanting to stay behind. I guess I'll have to go with them..._ Suichi made a mental sigh and turned with a forced smile to his friends. They looked ready...but ready for what?


	54. Walking down the road

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"How far away is it?" Hoji asked as he and his troupe of killers walked down the road.

"Far enough to be a pain" Shin said. "Still, I don't fully understand the mission."

"What's not to understand?" Suichi said, still stealthily sulking that he had to go along. "An orphan from years ago got into trouble and Lady Unohana wants us to rescue him."

"It's the brat's own fault" Hoji noted. "Still, what I'm worried about will be the opposition."

"Mercenaries" Shin said with disgust. "Regardless of our orders, let's make sure they all die."

"Why?" Suichi asked.

"Besides good practice?" Hoji began. "Mercs are filthy. They sell the most basic practice of fighting for unreasonable prices. They may as well just go home and join a militia, at least that way they'll have the benefits of being heroes."

"I don't like the concept" Shin said "that they embrace. Money over honor, reputation over actual skill. They just stab people in the back and call themselves amazing slaughter-monsters...no offense Suichi."

"Why would I take offense?" Suichi asked. "I do things honorably enough for an assassin."

"It's not that we don't have anything against you" Hoji said "we're just to forward-fighting minded to care about any other style of fighting."

"Scars on a back" Shin prosed "are a warrior's shame. For you, Suichi, it's a way of life."

"That's true" Suichi said. "I'm more worried about the leader than the actual mercenaries."

"Why's that?" Hoji asked.

"Weren't you listening?" Suichi asked in shock. "Lady Unohana said this guy has a sword that can **control people's minds**. That's not an easy opponent to take down."

"Once we figure out the trick" Shin said "it will be easy. Until we do, take precautions. Don't look directly at the sword, don't get touched by the sword, don't get within a certain proximity of the sword, and don't let your sword touch his sword. Other than that, I don't know how we can get mind controlled."

"Hopefully that will be enough to protect us" Suichi said.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Don't do this and try not to that, that's a bunch of crap. I can just use _Senkou no Shikyou _and kill the bastard before he gets a chance to hit us."

"Let's refrain from doing that" Shin said "until we're sure it will work. It may be akin to yanking an arrow out of your gut. It's better to leave it in and let a trained professional cut it out that to yank it out and have your organs stuck to it."

"Thanks for the visual" Suichi nervously said. "So, how long is it?"

"We still have a while to go" Shin said. "It's in a neighboring territory of the country, and remember, we just recently got here. We're going to be as lost as we were when we first entered Soul Reaper territory."

"Damn" Hoji cursed. "Hopefully some Hollows will pop out. I wanna try some new stuff out on them!"

"Well, keep hoping" Shin said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and an ambush will be waiting."

"Please no..." Suichi groaned. Now, for the first time, the ferocious three set foot into a completely new land! From the seclusive Unohana Manor deep in the wooded foothills at the base of a round mountain, Shin's gang set out down the rolling hills and dipping valleys into the unknown, dense forests of this exciting new wilderness! Would Hollows truly be prowling behind every tree waiting for a meal, or are there bandits crouched in attack position to make a meal of the passing traveler's wallets? The encounters from start to finish are unknown, the best kind of knowing for the mighty warriors Shin and Hoji!

* * *

Elsewhere in the spirit world, the ramifications of the fateful battle at Gevlav were finalized. The magic bullets _Suzumebachishuriken_ that Suichi had redirected completed their long and tiring flight over unfathomable amounts of land. Of the three Suichi sent out, only two were left, the other one being lost somewhere along the way. Their target was the same as when Suichi reprogrammed them: Ken Yaburashiji.

"Sir" a dutiful butler said, approaching his boss, "there are some deadly, deadly magical darts here to kill you."

"What?" the old voice of Ken said. He got up from his seat and stomped outside. He could see from the balcony of his snowy-mountain lodge the two corroded and slowed cones that were shaking to come at him. "Annoying..." Ken growled. He took his sword, and with one swift and clean swipe he blasted the air and obliterated the spiritual bullets from the world. Then he sheathed the sword, clicking its golden, gilded hand guard against its sheathe.

"Are you alright, sir?" the butler asked. Ken coughed in the cold air and tucked his hand into the sleeves of his thick yukata robe. An older man with the lines of wisdom across his firmly cut cheeks, Ken Yaburashiji had a daunting and menacing stance. He always seemed to be on edge about things and couldn't be seen by his subordinates smiling. His hair was dull and gray, but it filled his head and the area around his mouth. His short beard seemed like one, solid piece that couldn't move and his frayed sideburns gave the appearance of a climbing fire along the sides of his face. He wore a traditional samurai knot that flowed down into a long tail. His eyes had seen pain, suffering, success and loss, but now they saw the end of an era that he had seen coming months ago...

"I'm fine" Ken growled, marching back into his heated room. He sat down at his table, where a one-man game of _go_ was set up. He played by himself, not caring about the outside world at all.

"The Kyuuhiouto seems to be destroyed" the butler calmly noted. "Are you depressed sir?"

"I'm not" Ken said truthfully. "If the only purpose of that wretched project was to give those kids something to do with their time then I feel like I've accomplished something. I never intended it to do any good or bad, I just wanted to inspire people to act."

"You should feel honored then, sir" the butler pointed out. "You inspired three men to act to the point of taking out the entire structure of the Kyuuhiouto. A Shin Kenpachi was their leader, apparently." Ken's hand stopped with a clack on the board. It seemed that, form a professional point of view, Ken's white color had lost all possible moves. He was trapped by an utter veil of black on the board, an unintended circumstance.

"Kenpachi...?" Ken repeated. "The murderer?"

"I believe he prefers 'warrior'" the butler corrected. Ken folded his arms and sighed gruffly.

"Whatever he is" Ken said "keep some tabs on him. He may come in handy for my next project."

"What do you intend to do next, sir?" the butler asked.

"I want those idiots at Seireitei" Ken began "to realize a better way. My system will show them how good things can be for them if they bother to organize things correctly. The royal court guard will be transformed into my 'Gotei 13' and, hopefully, we can bring some peace to this waring land..."

"A noble cause" the butler complimented. "I'm sure it will succeed before it fails."

* * *

Still elsewhere, the maniacally ambitious forces of the Tenshioni were continuing their pursuit of a very distant enemy. Netami headed his group by hopping from craggy rock to spear-tipped stone on his sandaled feet. The others, Kakugari, Horoshi and Senshi, trailed behind the over-eager killer.

"Hey Netami!" Horoshi, the obviously weakest link of the group shouted, "Can you slow down a bit?"

"Death doesn't wait around for weaklings to catch up" Netami shouted. "If you can't keep up with me, then go home! I don't need you here anyway." Netami continued dashing off with Senshi quickly gaining form behind. Kakugari offered his strong hand to the young Horoshi and gave him a piggyback.

"Don't worry yourself much, young one" Kakugari said. "Netami is rushed, not angry at us. He simply needs some reconciliation with his past aggressor to be at peace."

"I know he's after revenge" Horoshi groaned, "but does he have to degrade us all the time?"

"You have no blame there" Kakugari said with a grin. "Netami is surely the strongest of us all! And he knows it! His power is enough to move the very mountains, and as such his pride is very vulnerable to getting hurt when he is shown up at any time. It is why none of us remark on his record of service, or lack thereof, and why he is so irreplaceable to the Tenshioni!"

"But still" Senshi bravely started, "he is physically ranked among the last of you! I, Senshi, the loving prophet of demise, am infinitely more attractive than Any of you!"

"We never properly voted on that" Kakugari mentioned. Finally, after climbing for an indiscernible amount of time, Netami reached the apparent summit of the mountain. To his surprise there seemed to be a disheveled temple carved out of the solid rock wall.

"A temple?" Netami noted. "All the way up here? Who would come here?" Finally, the other three caught up and rested to catch their breath.

"That was a hard climb!" Horoshi pointed out. After panting at the sky for a while, Horoshi also noticed the strangely placed temple. However, his senses also registered an unknown presence that forced him to draw his sword. "Someone's here!" Horoshi warned. Before Netami could bother to care about considering Horoshi's warning, a blast of undefined kido magic exploded at his chest. Netami, being the prodigious man that he was, was completely unfazed by the attack, but the ambush attempt did rile him up. He glared bitterly through the snow and smoke at the top of the temple steps. There a small hermit with long, wrinkled arms stepped out with a cane in hand.

"My my my" the old man said, "what have we here? Some pathetic young lost souls, looking for some otherworldly wisdom perhaps?" Old man grasshopper quickly took notice of the angry Netami and pointed his long, ancient finger at the black-haired menace. "You! I see a cloud of death handing over, and a rain of blood drenching you from head to foot! You are seeking a dangerous enemy, one who will force you to meet with death at the border of the unliving world!"

"What?" Netami said, drawing his horrible sword and taking his favorite stance. "You're saying someone will try to kill me?"

"Eventually" the old man chuckled, "he _will_ kill you. That is fate!" Netami would have none of this! He flashed forward and crossed swords with the old man's cane. "You have power and skill abound" the old man said, "but what you lack will surely be your ultimate downfall."

"I lack nothing" Netami growled. "I'm a perfect, absolutely powerful warrior!" Netami drew his sword up sharply and thrusted it down into the ground, destroying the temple steps and collapsing the gate. He stood up, eyes shining, and saw the old man had retreated onto an ornate statue.

"What you lack" the old man explained, "is calmness...that is your undoing!" Netami flashed forward again and started fighting inside the temple. The rest of his group stayed outside and gawked at the spectacle they only wished they could stand to watch.

_Such amazing power! _Horoshi awed. _But, is it true? Can there really be someone more powerful that Netami!?_ The fight would go on for more than a day, while that destined man moved further towards his own goal far, far away.


	55. El Diablo

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

While en route to their tandem destination, the traveling shinigami led by Shin came under an intriguing conversation.

"Say Hoji" Suichi said, "can I ask you something?"

"Tch?" Hoji grunted back.

"What's the X for?" Suichi asked, pointing at Hoji's forehead. Hoji looked up and took notice to his asymbolic red mark above his brow.

"I've been wondering that too" Shin said. "Is it a family crest?"

"Well, sort of" Hoji said. "I got it because I thought it would look cool. I mean, I can't do much with my hair in the front, obviously, but my head looked really vacant without something."

"Why not get something interesting?" Shin asked. "Maybe a Manji or a Madala?"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed "those are too hard. I couldn't do something that complex by myself."

"You did that to yourself!?" Suichi exclaimed. Suddenly, the group's merry discussion was broken by a heavy, demonic breathing. Upon hearing this unknown sound the swordsmen grasped the handles of their blades and huddled with their backs together.

"Hehehehe..." laughed a nefarious voice in the woods. "What luck. Today really is a lucky day! I have found three, three shinigami to eat!"

"Hollow..." Shin growled.

"You sure?" Hoji whispered. "It's not an Adjuchas or Gillian?"

"It feels pretty weak" Suichi noted, finally picking up the presence.

"It's a Hollow" Shin said "but we still can't let our guard down. Hollows have unique abilities."

"Tch" Hoji growled. "I hate these uppity bastards. I want to shout at him."

"Don't" Suichi chided.

"Hehehehe!" the Hollow laughed again. "Foolish shinigami! They don't know I can hear them whispering! The fools! How foolish! I shall wait for their guard to go down and ambush them!" The shinigami looked confused.

_Wait..._ Hoji thought, _we can hear him now. Does he know that?_

_This Hollow_ Shin observed_ obviously doesn't have an intellectual priority_.

"Come on..." the Hollow said anxiously, "move it! I'm hungry!"

"We can hear you, numb-nuts!" Hoji shouted. Silence passed through the forest, an awkward wind blew. The quiet sound of a distressed Hollow gasping was heard through the trees. In the spiritual stagnancy Shin took an advantage and blasted the trees with his pressure. The branches all shook and the leaves that fell sank straight to the ground. Shin felt a lump in the pressure field, and that's how he found his prey.

"Switch around" Shin ordered. The boys all made a strafing hop to the left and switched places in their triangular huddle. Shin was now facing the direction of the Hollow and made a powerful horizontal swing. The blast of air shook the trees from their roots up and cut the shrubs in the forest line. The Hollow dodged by leaping high into the air and hovered overhead for a moment, out of sight.

"He's coming" Suichi said frightfully.

"Tch" Hoji sneered. "Bring him on!" In a moment the Hollow came back down and crashed in the middle of the road.

"Hehehehe..." it chuckled in a deep and destructive voice. The dust started clearing, revealing its mask with a crown of horns and red streaks converging in a uniform point between its eyes and its mouth. It, surprisingly, wore clothes over its perfectly humanoid body. A normal, red kimono robe and large red pants tied off at the wrists and ankles which made them appear puffy and huge. His skin was shock white, as most Hollow's, and his eyes within the dark holes of his mask were shockingly red.

He was about five inches tall, at most.

"HAHAHA!!!" it laughed in a high, tiny voice. "Fools! Now you must face _EL DIABLO!_" The shinigami turned to their opponent, shared a look of mutual underwhelming dissatisfaction, and sheathed their swords.

* * *

"FOOLS!" El Diablo growled, steaming. "You dare unequip yourselves against the mighty ME!? I shall show you the error of your ways with my mighty, super powerful-" Hoji just stomped the ground and shook the tiny Hollow off his balance. Diablo faltered a bit before stomping back on both feet. He tried to continue his ranting but Hoji bent down and picked him up by the back of his robes.

"What the hell!?" Hoji said. Diablo started kicking around, trying to shake himself loose, but Hoji retaliated by shaking him back. "Tch! Is this it!? Where's the rest of him?"

"I think that's all of him" Suichi said. He and Shin came over to crowd around and study the strange, tiny Hollow. "I have an idea. Maybe a Hollow this small could be of use to Lady Unohana."

"FOOLS!" Diablo shouted. He wrenched himself loose of Hoji's finger-grasp at last and leaped through the air onto Hoji's face, grabbing onto his nose. "You know not whom you quell?"

"Quell?" Shin repeated. "What's that mean?" Diablo remained silent, obviously unable to answer.

"Tch" Hoji grunted, "get off my face, you tiny bastard."

"Bastard!?" Diablo shouted. "Me? No, you shinigami are the real bastards..." Diablo became suddenly solemn and clenched his toothy mouth shut. Even his eye-holes morphed into a sad shape. "Every time a Hollow decides to risk their life and venture into this world they never return! The lairs of all my old friends are quickly emptying as this world becomes more and more dangerous for all Hollow kind! It's miserable, you know, to starve to death because the fear of dying is too great to get proper food! Shame on you devils! SHAME SHAME SHAME!" El Diablo started sobbing into his sleeve on Hoji face, prying some sympathy from the most unlikely place. Shin took the Hollow and held him in his hand.

"I can't easily sympathize" Shin said "but perhaps there's a reason why those Hollows never come back. Maybe they're living well off the land and its...people."

"Really?" Diablo said hopefully. "I'm so glad to meet a thoughtful shinigami like you! I've been so very distressed since my older lair-mate Danzig died." Shin suddenly became paralyzed with guilt. "Just knowing he may still be alive, I feel I can go on..." Hoji had to hold his hand over his mouth to keep from bursting out laughing.

"Ah," Suichi began, "like I said, this Hollow actually seems to be rather tame. Friendly even, if a bit boisterous." El Diablo looked hopefully over at Suichi and invoked some empathetic emotions. "El Diablo, would you agree to answer some questions about your home land to another shinigami? A friend of ours?" Hoji felt like pulling Suichi aside and lecturing him about the dangers of Hollows with a knee to the crotch, but his request had an oddly positive response.

"Sure" El Diablo agreed. "I'd love to help you friendly people out!"

_TCH! _Hoji loudly scoffed to himself. _Am I the only one who hasn't gone stupid spontaneously!? It's a damn Hollow! An inter-dimensional monster that eats people's souls whole! There's nothing trustworthy about it! Nothing at all!!!_Regardless of Hoji's silent rant, Suichi let El Diablo hop over from Shin's hand into his. Shin and Suichi both felt relieved, but Hoji didn't let his guard down.

And for good reason.

Suddenly both Shin and Suichi looked surprised, even horrified, and started shaking. There was a huge field of pressure bearing down on him. "Ha!" Diablo laughed. "Like I'd ever help a shinigami! I know who you people are! I know you killed Danzig, Shin Kenpachi!" Hoji reached for his sword, but El Diablo was already using his unique Hollow powers on Shin and Suichi. Neither of them could move. Under the giant shock of Hollow pressure, Suichi got knocked out and started falling, El Diablo exploded into a mist of red and surrounded Suichi's body. His upper-body skinsuit and pants became stained blood red and his eyes rolled back into black-and-red Hollow eyes.

"HEHEHEH!!!" Suichi laughed. "Fools! Now I defy you to fight me! I have taken the body of your comrade! This is my awesome power! First I sway my prey's emotions to let their metal guard down, then I possess them! HEHEHEHEHE!!! Eh?" Shin and Hoji, now venomously glaring, drew out their swords slowly. Hoji was smiling, because he was right, and Shin looked scary as hell because he had been tricked into feeling guilt.

"Sorry Suichi" Shin growled.

"We'll make sure" Hoji said sternly "that your funeral is a great one..."

"EH!?" Suichi gasped. "You...you'd really kill your own fellow shinigami!?"

"Don't take it personally" Shin lowed, "it's for the greater good, after all."

"One less Hollow" Hoji said, preparing to charge. Diablo started shivering in his new body. He had apparently made a grave mistake in fighting these men...

* * *

Hoji started the fight. He ran forward while Diablo was still searching for Suichi's sword and prepared what looked like a decapitating, powerful swing. Finally, after frantic hoping, Diablo located the sword strapped to the back of Suichi's waist and drew it out to defend.

"Tch, idiot!" Hoji shouted. "Suichi's left handed!" Diablo believed Hoji and switched hands. Of course, it was a lie. Hoji made his strike and Diablo defended, only to get heaved off his feet and sent into a tree. _Double idiot_ Hoji internally snarled. _Suichi's ambidextrous, but only defends with his right hand! I've fought him enough to know all his weaknesses and fighting quirks!_

"You'll pay for that!" Diablo declared. He raised his right hand and started glaring at Hoji. An invisible ball of frost started forming, a sloppy attempt at honing Suichi's natural shinigami element into an attack that Hoji decided to quickly counter. Hoji leaned back and pointed with his palm, gathering the wind from all directions and forming a swirling vortex in his hand.

"_**Tatsumakite!**_" Hoji incanted. "You really wanna have a kido duel with me!?"

"He'll kick your ass, Suichi" Shin called.

"I'm not Suichi!" Diablo announced. "Screw it! I don't need to know the name of an attack to shoot it at you! TAKE THIS!" Diablo fired Suichi's attack, which exploded chaotically into cloud of icy shrapnel. Hoji just smirked and let the ice swirl into his vacuuming hand. Diablo grimaced with shock at how easily his efforts were brushed away by this shinigami.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Moron..." Hoji took a step forward, then a leap and reeled up his windy arm. With a roar he spiked his ball of wind and ice into the ground below Diablo's feet and a huge geyser of ripping wind and icy shard shot up into the sky. In an instinctive leap, Suichi's body invoked his sword and pulled himself away from the full brunt of the attack, suffering minor scratches at best from the rocks and some of the ice.

"He can invoke a shinigami's sword?" Shin noticed from the sidelines. "That's a terrible power...or..." Diablo took a moment to catch his breath and try to determine what had just happened.

_Wait...what!?_ Diablo internally shouted. _That's never happened before! His sword automatically released, as if at its own whim. Was it the attack that made him dodge?_

"Tch!" Hoji shouted. He took his sword in his release grip, keeping his right hand where it was near the hand guard and took his left hand to grip below his right. "So it's like that, eh?"

"Like what!?" Diablo shouted.

Hoji looked down and let his passive aural energy whip up a storm of energy. "Rip and Tear" he incanted, "_Torakaze!_" In a blast of wind, Hoji parted his two arms and showed off his shikai gauntlets. Golden with tiger-stripes of green, each finger tipped with a sharp claw. Hoji swayed his body in a windy way, letting his shoulders guide his legs and rising up to his toes. Then he sank down, left leg straight and forward with right leg crouched and knee facing forward. His left arm was stretched out and his claws were bared, his right arm was tensely drawn back and his fist tight. Hoji's glare sent the hopeless message to Diablo of 'you're screwed' and Diablo believed it.

"OH CRAP!" Diablo shouted. "I have to figure out how this thing works" he said frantically, looking down at the chain around his arm, "or I'm dead!"

"Actually" Hoji said, "you're dead no matter what you choose to do..." Hoji turned his left wrist and grabbed at the air to his side. Then he pulled and teleported right next to Diablo with his legs in the same position pointed down, meaning his right leg was kicked up. "Suichi may be fast...but no one can outrun the wind..." Hoji thrusted his right hand down and grabbed the air under him, then made a turning motion with it. His whole body started spinning in the air, legs out front, and as Diablo turned Suichi's face he got a painful encounter with Hoji's powerful legs. An air-warping roundhouse to the jaw was exactly what Suichi needed to wrench the little demon Hollow from his mouth in a splatter of red.

"You...fools..." Diablo groaned on the ground as a puddle of red. "You'll...pay for that now..." Shin made his entrance, deep and powerful, with a ground cracking stomp. Diablo quickly reformed and looked up at the tower of death that loomed above him.

"How...will we pay...Diablo?" Shin slowly asked. Diablo had to shiver in fear for a moment, realizing he was surrounded, then gave a scared squeak as an answer.

"I...I'll cry?" Diablo said. Shin raised his sword high up and sent it crashing down. El Diablo flinched and cowered with his hands on his head. Shin's sword met Hollow skull...

* * *

Madala: Buddhist wheel of reincarnation. Hindu term  
El Diablo: Obviously, 'The Devil' in Spanish  
Tatsumakite: Tornado-hand


	56. Futile Fight

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

After a very tense few seconds, El Diablo decided to come out of his terror crouch and look up. He felt alright, no catastrophic cut down his mask and his tiny limbs were still attached, so he assumed the kind shinigami had shown him mercy at the last second. He was wrong. Shin was angrily glaring through the dark shadow on his face at where his sword was connected. The metal of Shin's sword, despite his best efforts of single-handed strength, was unable to even mark El Diablo's skull. It was simply to tough...

"What the hell!?" Hoji exclaimed. Suichi was writhing on the ground and clutching his mouth fretfully.

_Dammit Hoji!_ Suichi thought. _Think of a less painful way to exorcise a Hollow from me next time!!!_

"Impossible..." Shin flatly growled. El Diablo, now realizing the shinigami's distress, decided to gloat.

"Ha! Fool!" Diablo declared. "I, in my mighty greatness, am far too powerful to be injured by the likes of you! You're a few thousand years away from injuring my pure, awesome form of awesomeness! AWE at my thickheaded-ness and TREMBLE!!!" Hoji was quietly snickering, holding a closed fist near his mouth to cover his building grin. Suichi got up and started groaning.

"You're a bastard, Hoji" Suichi groaned. "Still, I'm pretty surprised that it worked."

"What worked?" Hoji laughed. Shin pressed down, his raw physical strength still enough to at least pin Diablo under his sword, and looked over.

"He didn't release _Haganerensa_," Shin assumed, "you did. Your mind released it."

"He was holding it the right way" Suichi said. Suichi was able to observe passively while possessed and flashed back to the moment just before Hoji's _Tatsukite _crashed beneath him. El Diablo gripped the sword tightly with two hands in an attempt to strengthen his guard against the spell and Suichi incanted mentally in a flash. It worked, and through very strict and powerful spirit field manipulation, Suichi was able to command his weapon to pull him away from the blast area.

"...heh!" Shin sneered with an open grin. He glowered down at the struggling little Hollow, crouching painfully and waving its arms helplessly. "I'm glad. Here I thought it was a Hollow being ingenious to an unknown extent. But it was the training we've done as partners that allowed you to respond as quickly as you did. Finally! Something useful has come out of you Suichi!"

"He's just kidding" Hoji quickly added. "Useful things come from you all the time...I guess."

"Thanks you guys" Suichi angrily said. "Really, you're great trainers..." Now the shinigami were focused on the Hollow once more. El Diablo felt the eyes on him and stopped moving. His nerves were shot.

"Oh no" he though out loud. "What do I do!? These three guys are really _really_ powerful! Especially this Shin guy! I can see how he defeated Danzig, with all that strength and without even using an advanced sword! I might be in trouble...unless I can use my secret move on them..."

"Should we tell him?" Hoji asked.

"Nah" Shin said, raising his sword for Diablo and lifting him up with his foot. "He's dumb enough not to care."

"FOOL!" Diablo shouted, stomping and furiously wagging his finger from Shin's flexibly raised foot. "I will show you the consequences of mocking me! Prepare to enter a realm of pain and doom!"

"Really?" Shin said with a playful smile. Diablo jumped from Shin's foot to his face and gave him a stern, surprisingly powerful punch to the face. Shin disappeared and reappeared crashed into the tree line an instant later. His cheek was smoking.

"TCH!?" Hoji grunted. Diablo hopped up and made a spinning kick to Suichi's jaw.

"No way!" Suichi shouted. "I'm not getting hit like that again!" Suichi used his chain as a shield, pulling it straight form his arm and absorbing the blow with it. It was still powerful enough to send him backwards. Now Hoji, with his arms crossed passively observing things rather than helping, was the target.

"Hehehe!" Diablo laughed. "I'll enjoy beating _you_ up, baldy!"

"Eh?" Hoji grunted. His brow started twitching slowly, then picked up in to a shake. "Baldy...? Me?" Diablo made a punch, but Hoji effortlessly blocked it with his gauntlet. He snarled with his face shrouded in shadows and started growling like an animal. "WHO THE **** IS BALD!!!!?!?!?" Diablo was surprised, so much so that he let Hoji grab him with his bladed hand and shove him into the ground. Hoji kept the tiny Hollow balled up in his fist and started beating him repeatedly off the ground.

"Damn" Suichi noted. "Just...damn..."

* * *

"Ow..." Shin lowed. He slowly raised himself up and palmed at his bruised cheek. "That hurt. Crap. I was so entertained by his humorous form that I forgot he was a Hollow. Of course he's going to have some kind of super-strength..." Shin looked over at Hoji, who was rapidly punching the ground with a loosely balled fist and was able to catch a glimpse of El Diablo in that fist, looking distressed and dizzy. _His toughness is a product of his size. All that power condensed into a tiny form will undoubtedly be much more resilient than a giant Hollow with paper-thin skin...I'm embarrassed. I should have assumed that earlier..._ Shin decided to get up and walk out of the forest he was cleanly slammed into.

"Hoji!" Suichi called. "Are you even hurting him!?"

"Let me check" Hoji answered over the smashing of the ground. Hoji stopped, looked at the tiny Hollow in his fist, and saw red. A liquid splatter of formless red where Diablo was. "Crap..." The hole Hoji had pounded into the ground was empty, but Hoji could see the traces of red sinking into the ground. "Keep you yaps shut!" Hoji alerted. Suichi and Shin both wordlessly nodded and took their weapons to guard themselves.

The three now started slowly pacing around. Shin used his pressure to project a field underneath him, deep into the ground, and used it as a radar to detect movement of any possible measure. Suichi chilled the air around him so whatever came near him would have to slow down in the extreme cold. Hoji sniffed a few times, hoping his keen senses would pick up movement and scent in the wind he controlled.

_If he attacks me_ Hoji though _I'll call Shin and throw him with Torakaze. Shin will slice him up, regardless of what form he takes..._

_If he comes for me again_ Suichi thought _I'll use a spell to freeze him and let Hoji or Shin kill him. If Shin can't cut him I may not even be able to freeze him, but I can hope..._

_If he comes for me _Shin thought, _he'd better be satisfied with the life he's lived..._ Moments passed as the shinigami continued making unclear patterns of walking around. Shin tried to stay in one general area but came close to the other two on occasion, shivering as he got near Suichi. Hoji was tempted to just start pummeling the ground again, but declined. He wanted, for once, to remain patient. El Diablo waited, but not underground. He had long ago reached the roots of the trees and came up through them into his whole form. He didn't think, as he knew he would end up talking and the shinigami would hear him.

"Well" Shin said, "I suppose that's that. Let's keep going. We've got ground to cover..."

"Shin?" Hoji said. Shin had taken his sword in a more playful and relaxed manner, holding it in his left hand and tapping the blade into his right repeatedly.

"He's gone" Shin said, tilting his head onto his shoulder. "He may be an idiot, but he knows that now we mean business. Great job Hoji."

"Uh...thanks" Hoji said. He and Suichi deactivated their swords and sheathed them. "But Shin, seriously, we can't be a hundred percent about him leaving!"

"You may be right" Shin lowed. "In that case, stay alert." Shin's upbeat attitude towards not killing an enemy was a huge surprise to Hoji and Suichi. So much so they decided to take the farther flanks and carefully watch the sides of the road for movement. El Diablo stalked the three from a distance, going from one side of the road to another by leaping from the higher tree branches.

"As soon as their guard is completely down" Diablo whispered almost silently to himself, "I will attack the strongest one! Then I take his body and use it to kill every shinigami I can! Shin Kenpachi, I hope you can live with yourself after I possess you, because I'm going to make you commit every atrocity known to this pitiful, evil society!" Shin continued grinning as he walked, seemingly unaware of the danger that followed him so intently.

* * *

After a long while of walking, the group had fallen out of the collective guarded status and resumed casual conversation, although Shin kept tapping his sword rhythmically into his right hand.

"What kind of tattoo should I get?" Suichi asked. "Because I was thinking about something for on my back. Something people I just killed will see before they die, like a snake or demon or the gates of hell."

"You know what would look good?" Hoji said to Suichi. "Does your assassin group have, like, a motto or a code?"

"We have a code of conduct" Suichi explained "for when inside the main mansion of our leader. The only real rules are not to fornicate in plain view and to clean you weapons if you decide to kill someone privately."

"You have a weird assassination family, dude" Hoji said. Suichi laughed casually and Hoji started laughing humorously. Shin even started laughing quietly. This was the chance EL Diablo wanted. He jumped out behind the group and used his power, paralyzing them all in stance.

"WHA!?" Hoji grunted.

"HEHEHE!" Diablo laughed. "Once again, your foolish emotions have caused your downfall! I converted the carelessness of your happy attitudes into weight, and now you're all trapped!" Hoji and Suichi tried to counter the pressure and close their open mouths, but to no avail. They were sitting ducks, and they knew Diablo's plan already. "Now to possess Sin Kenpachi and take my proper revenge! HEHEHEHEHE!!!" Diablo transformed into his red, liquid form and leaped at Shin. Shin's sword, as planned, was stopped in his hand and Diablo was coming for him. In triumph he turned with his killing glare fixed on the amorphous blob of red in the air. "EH!?"

"My guard is never down" Shin said "until my enemy is dead." Diablo wanted to stop, but knew he couldn't in this form with this kind of energy behind him. Hoji and Suichi now wanted to smile wider, but failed to properly. "Reaping time, _Shikei!_" Shin's sword, in its proper positing, released into its scary scythe form. Shin turned, took a step with his right foot, and spun on the balls of his feet. As he spun he let his scythe extend and scrape the fine surface of Diablo's form.

"AAAHHH!!!" Diablo screamed. Shin spun forward, scythe overhead, and stomped down with his left foot. His scythe followed, backed with the kinetic energy of his whole body, and sliced a clean cut into Diablo's elastic form. Out of fear, Diablo had hardened his normal liquid form into a rubbery, bouncy form and now had a rather large gash rippling through his new body. Shin's scythe sliced into the ground and murdered the dirt, turning the patch of earthen brown into dead black instantly. Such is the power of death.

"Tch?" Hoji grunted, now out of his trance. He grabbed Diablo and started pulling him like the rubber putty he was.

"Ow!" Diablo shouted. Hoji heard his painful remark and pulled harder. "OW! Stop that, you fool! I'm stuck in this form now!"

"Really?" Shin said. He rested his scythe on his shoulder and clutched Diablo's flat surface hard. The scratch he made had disappeared, just as if he had cut into a puddle of water. Suichi came out of his trance last and grabbed Diablo, seeing how much fun Hoji was having just pulling and twisting while the Hollow screamed in pain.

"I'm usually not one for torture" Suichi remarked.

"Who cares!?" Hoji gleefully said.

"This thing is dangerous" Shin noted. "With this level of reliance and strength, and this pairing of powers, we can't very well let it roam the country side as it pleases." Suichi and Hoji took a break from torturing El Diablo and looked at Shin. After quickly considering the factors, they decided Shin was right.

"What should we do with him?" Hoji asked.

"You can let me go" Diablo kindly offered. The shinigami share mutual stares of general disgust, coupled with the previous incidents of total mistrust. Obviously, that suggestion was right out.

* * *

"HEY! YOU FOOLS!" El Diablo shouted as the three walked away. "How dare you, HOW DARE! I swear, once I get down I'm going to make you regret ever meeting me! Fools! You will never escape the wrath of _EL DIABLOOOOO!!!_" As a final act of cruel vengeance against the little Hollow, the boys decided to twist him up in his new rubber form and make him into a scarlet rope which they stretched around the base of a huge, thick tree and tied him too. Suichi made a sign that said 'Sacred Talking Demon Seal. Please do NOT remove the Rope', the proverbial final blow to the powerful little Hollow's ego...

Thus Shin Kenpachi and his group continued on to carry on with their original quest. A minor sidetrack that led into a great battle of wits, but ultimately ended as a practice in futility.


	57. Through the Hollow Woods

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The three shinigami, including the titular Shin, continued marching down the beaten path that led into, ironically enough 'Death God' country. Each region had a different phrase for their shinigami and different levels of respect. From Seireitei came the honor of being objectified as soldiers worth only the weight they could drag in dead bodies behind them. From Soul Reaper country came the fear and admiration of the rare and far-between man to develop a sword. Most of the shinigami fleeing from persecution or wanting a peaceful life would go from shinigami lands to become Soul Reapers. These 'Death Gods' though, who knows as of now what level of respect or fear or even hatred Shin and company would garner upon arriving to their destination?

"Hey" Hoji began suddenly "I got an idea."

"What?" Suichi asked.

"We're about" Hoji began "one good flash-stepping sprint away from the town, right?"

"About" Shin answered. "Granted, by walking, we're taking the long route there. If we decided to run as fast as we could we could get there in a few minutes rather than...tomorrow."

"Then let's race" Hoji said, stepping in front of his comrades and turning to them. "We need some kind of training while we go, right?"

"That's what Hollows are for" Shin said. "Of course, El Diablo didn't teach us anything..."

"Yeah" Suichi agreed. "And those four just a moment ago were too weak to be considered training. Shin just glared at them and took them out."

"It was awesome" Shin said. Hoji was nearly shaking, he was so impatiently frustrated. Shin and Suichi both noticed that he was about to explode, so they conceded. "Well, a race would be good. No shikais though."

"Dammit!" Hoji shouted. "Tch. Of course not. No, that way I'd actually win!"

"It's not training" Shin said "with winning or losing. In training you only lose so you can learn. Whoever wins the race loses the training we get from it."

"Hey, wait" Suichi said as Shin got into position. "Didn't you just...about losing and..." Suichi quickly contemplated the uselessness of debating reason in Shin's speech with Shin himself. Most likely Suichi would be proved wrong with a sharp sword to the throat. "I hope I lose" Suichi eventually said.

"That's the spirit" Shin said. All three lined themselves up and crouched down to the ground, one hand in the dirt and their good leg forward. They were ready to sprint and leave the Hollow Forest behind them. Ahead lie a fine stretch of broad wilderness, the forest spreading out and far away from the beaten path that led over the hills and, hopefully, to a town where militant mercenaries had taken over with the aid of a hypnotized young shinigami.

"On three" Hoji said. "I'll count." Suichi actually felt exhilarated, mostly because the chance to get away from Shin and Hoji in an exercise for once was a happy chance he didn't want to pass up. Their power had been escalating so much and so quickly recently that he was in a constant fear for his life. This fear of death came mostly, and obviously, from the Death-aural Shin.

"Three!" Hoji counted. "Two!" Everyone tensed up, ready and serious about racing, although not so much about winning. "One!"

"Bye" Shin calmly said. He disappeared. Not even a trail of dust was left. He just simply vanished from the realm of the living altogether.

"He's fast" Suichi said.

"Tch" Hoji grunted, still in attack position and forehead twitching. "GO!"

"Oh, that's what we were waiting for" Suichi said. He disappeared as well, just a bit slower than Shin, and left a twirling wisp of smoke in his wake. Hoji started running, just plainly running with his legs an arms pumping. He obviously mis-understood the actual concept of what Shin had said. He wanted to lose really badly.

"This'll show those bastards!" Hoji shouted. "I'm gonna get there last! I will win the training!!!" Hoji huffed and stormed onward through the forest and into the rolling meadows. He was an idiot.

* * *

"This is nice" Suichi shouted to himself. He stuck to the close-quarters of the forest that rolled away from their destination. It was in his instinctively honed training to be in the shadows, in the cover of darkness should an enemy come to him. "It gives me time to think."

_And now I will_ Suichi thought. Just as he was getting settled in his peaceful dash through the blurred woods, some uncomfortable presence roused him. _What now? A Hollow?_ Suichi started looking around him. First to his right, where he saw nothing. Then to his left, where he saw nothing. He turned his head forward again just as a flashing strobe of bleach white appeared out of the woods on his left. _Something must be nearby...or chasing me. Perhaps I should go faster..._ Suichi decided to jump up over the forest canopy and take a quick look all around himself. He spun slowly through the air and observed everything around him, and that's when it came.

From the ground, a Hollow pounced at Suichi and nearly hit him, but Suichi was able to tuck in his legs and sault away back into the forest where he resumed his sprint. _Okay_ Suichi began internally, _that's bad. A Hollow really is chasing me! I need to get out in the open!_ Just as he considered his direction from within the shrouded woods, the Hollow came back to attack again. Suichi could feel it in the air, the sweeping sensation of a swift death coming at his back. He ducked down and avoided the clean sweep that sliced down several trees. Suichi was forced to roll away and stumbled somehow into a clearing with a spring surrounded by rocks. He retrieved his sword and awaited the arrival of his enemy.

Out from the brush a totally animistic roar came. "GUROOOAAAGGGHHH!!!!" The Hollow came stomping out into the fresh, green grass of the clearing and gnashed its teeth. It's skull face was smaller than other Hollows, a normal sized skull for its body. It's chin was oddly cupped in a crescent shape with two curved points at either end. Its teeth were all incisors, all sharp and deadly looking. The two teeth at the very end of its bony grin were much longer than the others and pointed down. The Hollow's eye holes were triangular and viciously angled with deep yellow malice-filled eyes inside. It's head extended out in sharp points where the temples were and then ended in a spike that was curved back like a fin.

Of its body one thing was apparent, this Hollow was a killer. It had huge, sharp scythe blades as forearms attached to bone-thick parts that came down from the shoulder. Its torso was all one static, almost carved section of bone and white abdominal muscles where the arms and legs connected. It had a spiked hip part carved into the torso, eliminating the ability to turn at the waist where the leg 'bones' connected to the torso. Even its legs, the lower part, were sharp points at the bottom as feet. It was a skeletal mess with the ribs sticking plainly out and points curving in toward its stone-hard solar plexus region. From its shoulders down to the bottom point of its hip area there were two long, thin green stripes that made a V. The hole in its body was small, located between its collar bones at its upper chest.

What this thing was called could not be attained. This Hollow only had the sense to know that it was hungry and Suichi was food...wherever Suichi was.

_Isn't this all kinds of ironic?_ Suichi pointed out from a tree he hid in. He stood among the dense leaves at the top of the tree and looked down at the Hollow, holding his sword tight in his left hand. _I felt a surge of death that reminded me of Shin. Now a Hollow with scythes for arms is trying to kill me...heh. Maybe this is fate telling me that Shin will be the inevitable death of me._ Suichi ceased letting his mind wander and decided on his course of action. Just as the Hollow found its prey again with its sharp spiritual senses, Suichi leaped from the tree and delivered a stab into the Hollow's shoulder. He slashed down, then used the inertia to balance on his left heel and let his blade come to slash it again in the chest before backing off. Two attacks with only one attempt. The Hollow shouted madly with pain.

"RUUUUOOOOAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!" it screamed. Suichi landed back in his ready position, holding his sword out in front of him and on hand up with two fingers before his stern and kill-ready face as a sort of pomp and style. The cut Suichi made at its shoulder had nearly separated its arm socket from the rest of its torso. The left arm of the Hollow was out of action now, and Suichi approached once more.

"No matter what" Suichi decided "I'll get the most out of this training!" Suichi stomped forward with his left leg and made a flurry of stabs and slashes with his left arm and kept his right in the same position. The Hollow grunted in pain after each attack and started backing up with its stick legs. Desperate to fight, the Hollow made a kick that Suichi easily dodged. Then, once it knew Suichi could no longer cut at it, it swung its remaining sharp arm. Suichi caught it with his blade and felt the immense physical pressure of the skeletal Hollow press against his sword. The two were caught in a power struggle, but the odds quickly changed. Suichi saw all the cuts and wounds he made, stained with oozing blood, start to quickly recover.

"Hehehehe..." the Hollow deeply chuckled with malice. It shrugged its other shoulder around its static socket, the wound now healed, and slowly bought the other sharp bladed arm up for Suichi to see. Its strength was too great for Suichi to just push away and retreat from, and now its other arm was ready to slice him down. The Hollow reeled its free arm back as far as it could, taking a step back so it could rotate its torso as well, and roared. "GAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

_Dammit!_ Suichi mentally screamed. Time seemed to slow down as the razor-sharp death came in from Suichi's undefended right side. _I was outclassed...by a Hollow!?_ In what seemed to be the fleeting final seconds of Suichi's conscious life, he made the provoked decision to release his sword. Without the time to say the words properly, he simply screamed and hoped for the best.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" The spirit of _Haganerensa_ responded to Suichi's desperation and released his sword just in time. Not only that, but the sword took self-conscious control and warped itself to block the incoming attack. The Hollow growled and squinted its yellow eyes at Suichi's new defense. With its own starving desperation, the Hollow snapped its arms forward and pressed them against the chain around Suichi's neck. The blades met tip to tip and crushed Suichi's neck...

* * *

Meanwhile, as Suichi fought the Hollow in the woods, Shin reached the crest of the largest hill from the starting point and crouched to one knee to look out to the horizon. In the distance, over three more hills of rolling woods and dirt road still, there shined the lights of civilization.

"Well" Shin said to himself "it's a bit farther away then I had guessed, but we're almost there." Shin stood up and turned back around to find his comrades. He saw nothing. "I still can't see Suichi or Hoji. I expected one of them to get up here by now, but who cares. Hoji is probably making this race as hard as possile by going through the woods or not using his flash step or something. Suichi...he isn't one to mess around. He should be up here by now." Shin looked out to the rolling hills of lush grass and flowers one last time, catching a glimpse of the sun lying just over the highest distant mountain peak from where he and his company came from.

"Night is falling" he said. "They better get here soon."

Hoji, as per Shin's prediction, was indeed making the race harder on himself by still running with his own two legs rather than flash-stepping to the goal line. He was panting heavily and his brow was heavy with sweat, but he pushed onward with a victorious smile.

"I'm winning!" he cheered between heavy breaths. "I'm gonna beat them..at losing! I'll definitely win! Woo...hoo!" Unfortunately, Hoji lost track of his steps and veered away from the beeline course he had set. Now he was going in the wrong direction.


	58. The Hunger

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

_Well, this is still pretty bad_ Suichi thought. The chains of _Haganerensa_ had summoned themselves at Suichi's desperate, silent whim, and blocked both of the Hollow's blades. Even though the blades were ready to snip off Suichi's head, the Hollow didn't move. The pointed end of the chain had dug into the tender flesh inside the Hollow's chest hole, paralyzing it with uncertainty and pain. It was a stalemate, and both creatures knew what to do. They would disengage and back off, then reengage and fight, or they would both die. The Hollow glared down at his meal and threw his bladed arms away. Suichi jumped away and his sword followed, coiling around his left arm and ending in the pointed metal tip that extended from his middle finger as a dagger.

"Shin said no shikai" Suichi said. The Hollow didn't care, it just wanted to eat, but it waited for its prey to show weakness and acted like it was listening. "Now I've let him down and he'll very well want to kill me. I just can't get a lucky break today, can I?" He quickly raised his chained arm and started strafing the Hollow by walking backwards. The Hollow lurched to the side with its arms down and started walking sideways, crossing its thin, pointed legs over each other to keep pace with its prey. Suichi had to look down at his chain and silently thank it.

_I'm not sure why_ Suichi said _but you've saved me, Haganerensa. Thank you. Now, I need to kill this fiend and get back to Shin and Hoji._ Suichi drew his arm back slowly, then stopped his circular pacing. The Hollow stopped as well, right at the edge of the stone-bordered spring, and took a step forward. Its foot pierced easily though a rock and split it in half. Suichi jumped up into the air. The Hollow looked around, unable to follow him at that speed, and eventually found him high above the trees.

"Shoot!" Suichi ordered. The Hollow took the points of its scythed arms to the ground and turned its legs around so the knee joint faced backwards. With all fours poised on the ground and ready it leaped away and dodged Suichi's chain. It landed in its animal state and started skittering around like some deranged insect. "Reload!" Suichi shouted. The chain returned and wrapped around his arm, ready to fire again. He took aim with his right hand, but the Hollow wouldn't remain foolishly static. It shuffled its way into the trees and lost Suichi. "Dammit" Suichi cursed. He shot his chain out anyway and used it as a pole to stay suspended in the air.

"This thing" he remarked "obviously isn't that smart. At least its not as smart as El Diablo seemed to be. This one's just an animal. However, judging from its form, it's just a normal Hollow, not a Gilian or an Adjuchas. I may still have a chance if I can separate its head or cut it down the middle, but that's all I can do..." The Hollow, meanwhile, started silently contemplating its situation. It thought with the mental prowess of a starving animal and observed its quarry carefully. Suichi was still high up in the air, using his rigid chain as a stilt to stay away from the Hollow's reach. The Hollow quickly formulated two very simple plans. It could either climb up the chain using its pointed legs that could easily fit between each link, or it could try to shake Suichi off the chain and kill him when he reaches the ground. Both plans had inherent risks, but the second one would almost guarantee the Hollow a meal with little fight.

"GRAAAAAAHHHHH!" The Hollow roared. It rushed out with its arms drawn far back and made a mighty swipe at the chain.

"Gotcha" Suichi said. "Snare!" The chain, under his triggered command, snapped loose and entwined the Hollow from all sides. Its arms were bound down against its body and its legs were wrapped together at its rotating knee joints, bringing them forcibly together. In the last second it sank its feet down and opened its mouth to give itself grounding and to make it easier to breath. Suichi fell down gracefully and landed with his chain floating in the air where it traveled, ignorant of gravity and moving on its own will.

"You may be powerful" Suichi said "but you're not smart. You should realize that shinigami have precautions set against anything a Hollow could do."

"Grrrrr...." The Hollow growled. It didn't understand what its prey said but the condescending tone rang familiar and stirred up hate within the Hollow's ghostly belly.

"I can't pity you" Suichi said. "I have no mercy for anything, especially Hollows." _Although_ he continued silently _this is the first time I've gotten a Hollow in my advantage. I was pretty sure he killed me earlier and my neck still hurts like hell from getting pressed so hard... _The Hollow started struggling against the tight bind Suichi had him in and Suichi backed off a bit. The pure physical strength of this Hollow may in fact be enough to force his chains to give way, unlikely as that was. Just as Suichi was prepared to make his final attack and approach, the Hollow opened its jaw wide and chomped down on the chains in its mouth. Suichi could feel the breaking from where he was and decided to play it safe. He would disengage his sword.

"RAAAAGGGHHH!!!" The Hollow roared. Another chomp and, surely, the chains shattered. As Suichi saw the metal shrapnel float in the air and fall to the ground, he could only summon the willpower to utter a simple phrase.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me..." he lowed.

* * *

"HHHRAAAGGGGHH!!!" The Hollow roared. It presented its scythed arms, glaring over them analytically as if they had occurred some kind of damage, and then eyed Suichi standing between them. In its mad panic the Hollow dashed forward and started swinging wildly once it was at Suichi's position. The shinigami vanished and reappeared in the middle of the spring standing on the toes of his left leg with his right hand in front of his face and his chained arm pointed downward. He breathed out calmly and looked back at the mad Hollow glaring at him at the edge of the spring.

"Jump on in" Suichi welcomed, moving both his hands and arms in circles and spreading his legs apart until his left arm was extended forward and his right arm was drawn back at the elbow so the hand was behind the chain. "The water's fine." The Hollow grunted out some breaths and started walking around, looking at the water with confusion and a sense of and intimidation through its masked face. Suichi stepped lightly and turned to keep the Hollow in front of him, steadily breathing the whole time. _This technique is hard for me to keep up _Suichi thought _but it seems to be buying me time. This Hollow seems to be afraid of water._ The Hollow lowered itself to the water level and stared at its reflection curiously. With a poke it forced its mirror image to disappeared and backed away with fright.

"This may be too easy" Suichi said. The Hollow looked at Suichi again and roared. It was determined to eat. It observed its surroundings and found, among other things, a rock. It pierced it with its spike foot and kicked it at Suichi. It was easily dodged. The Hollow continued with its impromptu range attack, throwing everything it could find at Suichi who just slid away with barely any effort. "At least it can't attack me seriously" Suichi remarked. As he said that, as if on cue, the Hollow stomped its way over to a huge rock and stabbed into it with its arms. With the boulder over head it turned around to see that Suichi was gone, leaving a splash in his place.

"???" The Hollow curiously grunted. Suichi was behind it now, and it took only a second for the spiritual displacement to register with the Hollow. It immediately spun around on its spike foot to throw the rock at Suichi, but Suichi was ready. He had already wrapped _Haganerensa_ around the Hollow's elbow joints and prepared to cut its own arms off at the source. Animal instinct interjected. "HHHRAAAAAAAGGHHHH!!!!" the Hollow roared viciously. It knelt down suddenly and slammed the rock to the ground, severing Suichi's attack and returning his chain to his arm. The Hollow was alright but the boulder it held was shattered and its elbow joints were cut from the sudden removal of Suichi's chain. Suichi sailed through the air for a moment before coming back to the ground on the opposite side of the spring. The Hollow looked at him with the intolerable hate it had newly developed for this, its uncooperative food.

"You should realize by now" Suichi said "that this fight is pointless. I'll win. I'm smarter, I'm faster, and although I'm weaker my weapon is more flexible than yours. Literally! I call the shots now!" Suichi then blinked. A fatal mistake, he discovered just a flash of a moment later. He learned as he opened his eyes that he was not faster at all when he saw the Hollow coming at him in the air, mouth open and arms reeled up above its shoulders. In just a flash-second Suichi would be cut apart and eaten all at once. _Haganerensa_ was spent and mostly broken. All he could do now...was run.

"GRAH!" The Hollow shouted. It hit the ground hard with its bladed arms and speared it with its pointed legs. Suichi was gone, again, and a moment later the Hollow knew where to go. Suichi was racing desperately with his sword sheathed through the woods. If he had a chance it was here, amidst the many trees and rocks of the forest. The Hollow didn't know how disadvantaged it would be and it didn't care. It was hungry, and no meal it would find now would be as satisfying as the one that was getting away! With a huff and a growl it started sprinting on its own, using its thick, bladed forearms to make swimming motions through the air. It would find Suichi using his scent and kill him!

_I need a definite plan_ Suichi thought. _If I can trap it for just a second I can win! _Suichi pulled out his damaged sword and examined it. The broad side was chipped and slightly frayed, but the damage would not break it upon use. He could still use it to kill the Hollow, but he couldn't use it to fight. _This needs to be a clean kill. Sever the mask straight down the middle and walk away..._ Now that Suichi had a goal, he began planning his path on reaching that goal based on his surroundings. There were trees, rocks, and sticks all around, but no water. Suichi smiled as if there were no problem and disappeared.

The Hollow continued to chase Suichi based on the scent it knew but that trail started to die. The Hollow had to slow down and eventually stop, as the trail had completely ended. This made the starving Hollow furious. "Grrrrrr..." it growled. "Hragsh!" it snarled. It started pacing impatiently around the base of a tree, searching for Suichi wherever he was. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Suichi had taken to the branches of the tree and hid among the leafs. The Hollow could tell Suichi was close based on his scent but it hadn't the common sense to look up to find him. It thought Suichi was circling around the opposite side of the tree as it searched around.

_I've got it trapped now_ Suichi told himself. He silently examined the ground around the Hollow and waited. The Hollow continued pacing around, making a long scratch in the tree's bark with its scythed arm as a mark. Suichi was not here, by some arcane magic, and the Hollow would search elsewhere. Just as it was ready to leave, the Hollow noticed a bright shining from the ground. A reflection of the light from the sky had been cast in a pool of water that circled the tree. Suddenly the Hollow found itself in a panic. It backed against the tree in terror as it watched the liquid come up from beneath the dirt and grass of the forest floor.

* * *

_When I was dodging rocks_ Suichi recounted _I took its fear into account and froze some water as balls of ice. I hid those balls all around here with a timed dispel limit. Now my freezing aura has worn off and the ice has melted into water. This thing won't move far, if at all._ The Hollow stood shock-still against the tree, but Suichi didn't act. He knew when to strike from years of experience. The Hollow finally let go of the tree and slowly approached the water stream. It was still flowing out from the dense balls of ice Suichi had stolen and filled the small area of footsteps the Hollow had traced.

"...???" The Hollow grunted inquisitively. It moved down onto its knees and kept its balance by sticking its arms into the ground away from the water. Its elbows were pointed backwards to accommodate its arms and the scythes were stuck up to their middle in dirt. Suichi knew it was time now and dropped. The Hollow took a careful, studious glance into the water as the ripples stopped and saw itself...as well as another shadow appearing behind it. Before it knew, before there was time, before he was discovered Suichi made a sweeping strike that sliced the Hollow's skull-face straight down the middle. The Hollow moaned with sadness and pain, still so hungry and yet defeated by its own food. Suichi's swipe made a stylish arc of blood that started when he was airborne and ended now with his legs straight and back arched slightly. He held his sword arm up in the air, blade parallel to the ground below it.

Suichi just looked back at the whining Hollow and almost pitied it. Almost. "I'm late" Suichi said as he sheathed his sword. "Thanks for the training." With that said Suichi dashed off and let the Hollow fall into the puddle of cool water. The last sensation of the Spirit World it felt was the soothing calm of the fresh spring water on its bleeding, dying face. Now it died, destined to go wherever Hollows go when they die...


	59. The Restlessly Idle World

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"Took your sweet time" Shin said, standing elegantly atop the hill with his arms crossed. Suichi sat next to him, the dreadful fight just moments before having exhausted him completely. His legs crossed and still marred sword used as a cane, he breathed deeply with great relief.

"Sorry" Suichi said. "Hollow trouble."

"Lucky" Shin said, spying the rolling plains that were behind him. The sun was starting to set now. The trek had taken a few days already, and now that the team was within just a quick dash of their final destination, Shin wanted to get there as soon as possible. "He's still drudging along, thankfully."

"Who?" Suichi asked. "Hoji? I thought he'd left already."

"Nope" Shin said. "He's still getting here."

"How lost is he?" Suichi asked. Shin pointed out to a small, black dot on the far away hillside. It was Hoji, running around in dizzy, nonsensical patterns with his arms down at his sides. All the hours he had taken running like an idiot instead of flash-stepping had taken their toll on him. He was only a few moments from passing out entirely. Suichi had nothing to say. He just squinted in disbelief and straightened his back to try and snap out of the stupidity he felt.

"Doesn't make sense, does it?" Shin asked. "You wanna go get him? Or shoot up a frozen firework signal?"

"Even if I could" Suichi said, sitting back down "I don't want to attract too much attention. We can already see the light of town from here, nothing is stopping our enemies from seeing us if we reveal ourselves." Shin took the sheathe of his sword from his belt, spun it around, and then rested it in his lap as he sat down.

"Good point" Shin said. He joined Suichi in cross-legged meditation. "What kind of Hollow did you fight? What was his ability?"

"He was afraid of water" Suichi said. Shin raised his brows, not expecting something so strange to be considered a real ability or note-worthy trait. "It didn't really have any abilities that I could see. It had huge scythe blades for arms, though."

"Cool" Shin said with honest excitement.

"I killed him though" Suichi said.

"Great" Shin said, losing his excitement.

_Did the scythes make him happy?_ Suichi asked himself. _What, now that he has one he only thinks those are cool weapons? What's going to happed when he has to fight someone else with a scythe-type weapon?_

"Say Suichi" Shin began, "do you have any enemies?"

"Uh..." Suichi hummed curiously.

"You're an assassin" Shin began. "By the way you present yourself and train, you're obviously a well-respected one, perhaps at the top of your guild or near it?"

"Yeah I am" Suichi said modestly. "Wait, how'd you know?"

"I've killed assassins before" Shin admitted. "Real ones, ones like you who were at the top of their league or their guild. They weren't really cocky about it, either. They were pretty stoic. Not many of them had their swords at your level, though. In fact, one of them didn't even use his sword. He tried to kill me with hospitality."

"Really?" Suichi said. _Wait, when has Shin ever lied about killing people? Of course he's telling me the truth...but why is he so concerned over this now?_

"I need to know" Shin admitted. "You're hanging out with us not to kill me..." Shin stopped and looked at Suichi. He wanted a clear answer from the mouth of the killer himself. Suichi turned in all seriousness and gulped.

"I messed with someone immensely powerful" Suichi confessed "and he got away. Well, I actually got away, and this guy is so prideful that he wants to hunt me down and kill me. He's been chasing me and technically you guys as well ever since news about us started springing up around the regions!" Suichi tucked his sword and sheathe away shamefully and stood up with his head down and away from Shin. "I'm sorry. I know being deceived like this doesn't really bother you, and Hoji may not be too mad at me, but honestly I dragged you both into a conflict you had nothing to do with."

"Well that's what we do" Shin said. "All we've been doing for how long is getting involved where we aren't wanted, like the Kyuuhiouto. Hoji and I just wanted to kick some ass." Shin then stood up, keeping his sheathed sword against his shoulder. "You have no reason to be sorry. If anyone comes for my head they need to be prepared to lose theirs in the process."

Suichi was hopeful now, a feeling he had long lost. Somewhere in the back of his mind, all throughout the fighting he had done with the Kyuuhiouto members, there was a fear of Netami grabbing at his heels. The dark, clutching shadow of death had loomed over him for so long, but now he could see some light. That shadow had lifted off the ground and manifested into Shin Kenpachi, a godsent warrior of Death whose blade could kill from miles away. Shin was a radiating god of darkness, even his warm smile sent the chills of death up Suichi's spine...but he still managed to smile back.

"Tch!" grunted a pained and strained voice. Hoji finally clawed his way up the soft hillside and plopped down on the ground, heaving heavy breaths. He took his sword from his belt and slammed it blindly on the ground in front of him, his face buried in the soft grass. "This blue-haired bitch got me lost! I hate her!"

"That's you in that sword" Shin said, kneeling down. "Treat yourself better." Hoji was breathing too heavily to make a witty response. Suichi and Shin both sat down on the soft carpeting of the hill and came upon a united revelation.

"Looks like we're camping tonight" Suichi said.

"Yup" Shin agreed. Hoji turned himself over and brought his sword back to his chest.

"We've only got a quick run tomorrow" Shin said. "It's better we get rested before we charge in to fight."

"It better not rain" Hoji growled. "I'll kill someone if it rains on us out here." Shin rose his head up and looked around. There was a slow and gentle breeze rolling in from the direction of the setting sun where there were no clouds at all. Shin was momentarily captivated by the sun in its glowing beauty, then smiled and laid his head down.

"We'll be fine" Shin said. "I'll kill the sky if it starts to rain." Hoji grinned and laughed as a breath out. Suichi made himself comfortable among his friends and all three slowly drifted away into sleep, following the sun past their waking world into nocturnal silence...

* * *

And while our 'not-quite' heroes slumber so peacefully, over the days they had journeyed a massive battle was raging on! Netami and the old man Inaga were still fighting vigorously. Neither had shown any sign of tiredness or mercy, Netami swinging desperately for the old man's throat and the elder jabbing non-stop with his cane at Netami's many open spots. The fighting had taken place all over the mountain, from the level stoop of the mighty temple to the snow-covered peaks of the mightier summit. Neither godly combatant gave an inch to his opponent, but the confidence the old man had easily trumped the tiring morale of brash and impatient Netami.

Needless to say, the other Tenshioni accompanying Netami were forced to wait inside the temple when it was safe as they could in no way keep up with that dangerous level of fighting. Horoshi was especially anxious, waiting at the top of the stairs all the time in the hopes of catching the fight if it made its way back.

"Horoshi" Kakugari said from within the temple. "Please, do not stay so precariously at the edge of the chilled mountain air. Come in, sit with the rest of us! Enjoy yourself while Netami vanquishes his foe."

"I dunno" Horoshi admitted. "That old guy seemed pretty sure of himself, you know? What if he's too much for Netami?"

"Don't be foolish!" Senshi blared, jumping up quickly to flex and pose. He walked lightly over to Horoshi and put a large hand on his shoulder, much to Horoshi's discomfort. "Netami is the pride of the Tenshioni! He is a mighty and unmovable force of power and doom! If we don't believe in him...it won't matter because he doesn't care." Those words, for whatever reason, seemed to bring absolutely no comfort to Horoshi. He was content outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of some happening that would make him a bit happier.

"**Hash-RA!**" shouted the old voice from far above. After a moment, Netami came barreling through the mist and into the stone-tiled floor in front of the temple steps. The old man came down much more gracefully, landing on his feet rather than on his back like Netami did, and hopped from the stooped roof of his stone home to the steps in front of Horoshi.

"Gah!" Horoshi gasped, jumping back. Senshi made his own silent reel back, lifting his leg and arm with very wide eyes at the sudden appearance of the strange little man.

"Hehehehe!" Inaga chuckled. "You're centuries away from beating me, young man! I train myself every day!" Netami was on his feet, black hair forming a dark curtain over his evil face. The glower of his orange eyes shone out through that black, and he gripped his sword tightly in his hand. With just a light stroke to the side, the tree on the mountain ledge started to shake. Inaga cocked a brow with a snide smile and watched. Netami slashed the blade of his sword to the ground and a myriad of cuts appeared all around and on the tree from out of nowhere!

"I am the nothing" Netami said quietly and angrily "that eats the sun at the day's end...!" Netami started breathing deep controlled breaths until he was calm. He then brushed the hair carefully away from his face and looked down at his foe with calm, analyzing eyes and a smile. "Give up, old man. Tell me what I want to know."

"Netami!" Horoshi shouted. "You need a hand!?" Horoshi drew out his sword, showing just how eager and anxious he was to fight, but Inaga was gone. Netami's eyes widened in shock as he heard the hollow knocking of wood behind him. Inaga flash-stepped in such a way that nobody was able to even remotely follow him, not even brilliant Netami. This of course brought a new twitch to his forehead.

"Let's see here" Inaga said. He tapped the tree one last time with his cane and all the branches fell off at once. Even the bark was peeled off, revealing the dense and thick underskin of the tree. It was sliced cleanly down to the very ground, which was covered in long an deep slash marks. "You killed this tree already, didn't you? You cut its roots off with that swing." Netami slowly started turning around, trying hard to control his anger.

"Watch this young man" Inaga said. He brought his fist back and prepared to punch the tree. His arm moved through the air in such a way that made the winds roar around him. He punched the air away from him as his arm moved towards the tree, making the whole act seem much slower than it was. Netami stayed standing where he was, the black of his hair making a sort of liquid shadow all over his face. Horoshi and Senshi were blasted inside the temple near Kakugari.

"What goes on?" the large man asked.

"Netami is at odd ends!" Senshi explained.

"Is he!?" Kakugari asked in disbelief. The punch still continued, Netami not moving at all due to his inability to, and finally Inaga was but inches away from contact. He uncurled his index finger, twirled it around laxly, and merely poked the tree. All the wind stopped instantly. Inaga then took his cane and disappeared back to the steps, knowing Netami wasn't patient enough to let an honest fight continue for long. As he landed the tree began to loudly creak and groan. Splits started occurring at odd places. Some kind of strange shape started forming with the breaking lines Inaga's single touch had created.

_What kind of bizarre power is this?_ Netami asked himself. Suddenly, the tree exploded with a blast of wind from nowhere! Chunks of wood floated at Netami, then flew harmlessly past him as dust and shrapnel. Once the dust cleared, Netami had to take a step back and groan with surprise. "This...what is this!?" he exclaimed.

"It is me!" Inaga said. In a single touch he had forced the wood of the tree into a carved statue of a handsome, wide-jawed young man with hair cut close to the scalp. One hand at the base of his spine, pushing his body up in a proud and boastful posture, the other hand at the chest with fingers lightly pressed on the brilliantly cut muscles under the shinigami garb he wore. A long sword was sheathed at his side, the hand guard formed with seven interlocked and overlapping thin bands. His face, beyond being handsome, had an inhuman sageness to it. He looked like a man with more answers than words he knew, a man filled to the brim with arcane charisma. "Granted, that was me a few hundred years ago, but it is me nonetheless!" Netami was shocked, and when he was shocked he expressed it with disgust and anger.

"What is this mockery!?" Netami demanded. "Why do you toy with me!? You know I will win. If you know the name of my sword just from contact _and_ its abilities, then you must also know the limits that I can push to kill you!"

"That I do" Inaga said, "but you have no idea just how much power _I_ truly possess." Netami shut his teeth together in silence. The old man had a point. "I did that elegant and handsome sculpture with only one finger. Imagine what would happen if I decided to hit you!" Netami suddenly decided the fight was over. He sheathed his sword with a quick spin that kicked up the snow and dirt from all around. He then glared through his black hair with his dangerous eyes at the ancient smiling man before him.

"Uh..." Horoshi grunted. He noticed his sword was already sheathed, no doubt the work of that old man somehow. "I guess...we'll concede for now."

"Will you not tell me" Netami growled "just what I want to know?"

"I may" Inaga said noncommittally. "You must first agree to listen to me."

"Very well" Netami said. He walked forward and stopped himself when he was at eye level with the small man on the steps above. "What do you have to say?"

"I'd like" Inaga began "to tell you my entire life story if I could. It's been a while since anyone stuck around long enough to listen." Netami glared seriously for a few seconds, then gave in with a heaving sigh. He drew out his sheathed sword of black-ringed grip and mysteriously patterned guard and sat next to the old man, using his own sword as a cane to keep his chin propped up. Inaga smiled nicely and sat down. "It all started nearly a millennium ago..." and with that start Netami gave an impatient sigh. It would take a long time, surely, but he would get what he wanted...

The location of Shin Kenpachi.


	60. Xierd Leek, Land of the Death Gods

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The town of Xierd Leek was bustling with the energy of its constantly moving citizens. The people moved from square-walled building to building in their strangely foreign clothing of flamboyant ruffles and intricate weaving. The men wore suits of tight-knit pants that hugged their legs and smooth, heavy cloth vests with a row of buckles running form the thick collar to the waist. The women wore huge, billowing dresses adorned with layers and layers of frills and lace of beautiful colors along with head dresses and intricately decorated hats. None of these plebeians wore swords, nor did they have the swords to wear.

It was certainly a shock for the people at the town's edge to see the newest foreigners walking in from the wild plains. Men clad in almost identical black robes over white inner robes, long and wide black pants around their legs, and swords at their hips. One had his black outer robe tucked into his pants and tied off around his waist by the sleeves, a nearly bald head with a tail of black hair whipping in the gentle winds. Another man wore no upper robes but a form-fitting shadow of black, hair smooth and close to his head that seemed matted from what may have been years without washing.

And then there was the man between them. He walked with his sheathed sword rested on his shoulder, tapping it on his stone-hard neck occasionally. His robes were tattered with battle at the edges, and those frayed edges blew in the wind like a cape. His short, unkempt black hair seemed to frame his face with a silhouette of distant dread. Just looking at his fixed, emotionless gaze gave one a sharp chilling sensation of approaching death.

Shin Kenpachi and company arrive now to their destination to rescue the captive orphan for Rei Unohana. Days of travel and fighting along the way have finally payed off...somewhat.

"TCH!" Hoji scoffed loudly. "I'm hungry!"

"You're always hungry" Shin pointed out. "We passed at least twenty apple trees on the way into town and you didn't even look at them."

"APPLES AREN'T MEAT!" Hoji shouted.

"It sucks to be you, Hoji" Suichi said fearlessly. Hoji started growling and attempted to reach across Shin to grab and possibly thrash Suichi but Shin stopped him with a quick smack to the wrist.

"No fighting" Shin said sternly "until we find the dirty mercenaries. Then we can rampage as much as we want."

"Fine" Hoji angrily agreed. He rubbed his wrist and muttered quietly about the pain while Suichi held himself high beside his comrades.

"Halt!" some man shouted. A guard strapped with metal armor of strange make stepped out with a sword around his waist. His armor was all flat, many plates of rather thin metal strapped together by leather bands and a helmet made of some creature's thick hide. Shin focused on his sword, which was broader and straighter than his own. The handguard wasn't rounded or flat, but stretched out to form a cross connecting the hilt with the sheathed blade. "What be your business here?"

"None of yours" Hoji answered.

"Eh?" the guard asked.

"We're here on a mission" Shin said. "Can you point us in the direction of anyone claiming to be a mercenary?"

"Where do you hail from?" the guard asked intensely. The shinigami stood around for a moment in confusion, then started shifting curiously and asking each other discretely. "Answer me!" the guard demanded. Shin turned with his eyes half-open in a terrible glare and stared the guard down until he saw a lump form and get swallowed in the man's throat.

"Seireitei" Shin answered. "We're all from the Seireitei territory. Problem?"

"Uh" the guard hummed nervously. "No, no problem at all. Uh, the mercenaries, you asked?" Shin crossed his arms impatiently and shifted his feet to a shoulder width apart. "They are in the palace in the center of town..."

"Great" Shin said. "Thanks. Evacuate the area for us."

"Shin" Suichi whispered "can't we be discrete about this for once?"

"Tch!" Hoji grunted. "Screw discrete! I wanna fight!"

"So do I" Shin said "but I agree with Suichi. Just rushing in with no plan against an enemy with an ability we can't predict won't exactly play in our favor. We need a tactical approach."

"Aww, man" Hoji said disappointedly. "Fine. What's the plan then, Suichi?"

"Yes Suichi" Shin said in agreement. "What's the plan?"

"What?" Suichi said startled. "Me? Why me?"

"Excuse me" the guard asked, now stern again, "but I cannot condone any violent activity within the city. I am a member of the Reagent Guard, after all! I'm sorry sirs, but you cannot proceed into the city any further." All three looked at him expressionlessly. In an instant the men formed their own analysis of the situation and vanished. "EH!?" the guard exclaimed.

Shin, Hoji and Suichi had decided, almost telepathically, to take to the tops of the steep-angled roofs and sprint their way to the center of town. From their perspective outside of town in the apple orchards everything had looked the same. Now they could see everything at once, and chose their destination at once.

"Head for the biggest building near the square" Shin called out to his comrades. "That's where these bastards will most likely be."

"Then we kill them?" Hoji asked hopefully.

"Do whatever you want, Hoji" Suichi said. "I'll search for the kid while you two are fighting."

"It's a plan" Shin shouted. The three raced on across the shingled roofs for the square, people watching them go in fearful wonder as they went.

* * *

Inside the royal estate of the Reagent a merry band played. Raucous men cavorted and sang drunken songs with each other in their twisted take of shinigami garb. They had shortened their sleeves and hemmed their pants so they were closer together, much like the pants of the regular people of the town the were quartered in. The Reagent, ruler of the town under direct order of the current regional emperor, sat at his wooden throne behind his private table where the two most influential people of the town's militia were already eating beside him.

His garments were those of the people, a red men's vest with golden buckles and a frilled, silver hemming and shining black pants with leathery boots. He was a young man in the political field, one who had experienced the war strictly on the side of papers and administration, but he still kept a serious furrow in his brows with his warm smile so no one could call him cold or uncaring. His brown hair was tied in the back in a tail that was then tied again to form a sort of knot at the base of his skull, a traditional hairstyle for men in power out in Death God country.

"What a great feast" the reagent marveled as he took a spoonful of some gooey, creamy cheese mixture. His lips pursed in great pleasure, his eyes filled with sparkling wetness. "AH!" he gasped almost effeminately. "It's sooooo goood! The chef's have certainly outdone themselves once again!"

"Agreed!" the town militia captain, bearded regally with an upper lip and chin full of thick, curly hair said. He wore a crown of hair around his head as well, another mark of age, and sported long-set scars atop his healthy scalp, a sign of battle. He wore more articulately carved armor sporting the insignia of the guard on each shoulder and the left chest plate. He was eating a plate full to the brim of dripping wet meat. "This roast is scrumptious! I can barely find the proper words to describe this meal!"

"Open a book then" the other man, who sat farther apart from the two more casual men in his own shadows, said snidely. He was the mercenary captain, dressed in full shinigami attire. His outfit had no modifications or changes to it, it was a simple traditional set of robes and pants with a sword at his side. His hair was short, if not shaved, and his face was very sharply carved from the way the shadows hit it in his dim light. He sat leaning forward, sipping some gourmet soup, and choked it all down in large gulps. "I promise, there will be good information in it."

"Please try to be less cynical, sir" the noble Reagent pleaded. "We are all here for the same reason...ish."

"Quit abusing language" the mercenary demanded. "I'm only here for the money."

"That's what I meant" the Reagent said, shaking his fork. He took another small, steamy bite of his dish and sighed at it lovingly once it entered his mouth.

"Agreed!" the captain said once again in agreement. He took another twirled forkful of meat and ate it enthusiastically. The revelry and peace of the gallant feasting room where the men ate was broken by the fearful panic of a running scout who made a beeline for the throne. The Reagent noticed him running forth and broke away from his delicious food long enough to turn his attention to the message this man brought.

"Sir!" the sprinter shouted. "I bring grave news! Outsiders are coming, wielding swords from the Seireitei region!" There was a hush among the leaders. Even the captain of the guard broke away from his meaty meal and looked over with a start.

"Seireitei!?" the Reagent growled loudly. The soldiers in the hall stopped and turned to the loud man shouting at the central throne. He immediately saw them and nervously sat down, embarrassed that he had brought so much attention to himself. "Are they moving upon us already?"

"Is it a direct act of war?" The captain asked.

"I don't know" the nervous man said. "The report was that they were here on business, and something about an orphan, that's all I know." The last bit caught the mercenary captain's attention. He grinned, and true to his apparent position of dirty, soulless crime, it wasn't a pleasant one.

"Let me take care of them" the merc captain insisted. He stood up, a league taller than most of the men he commanded, and gripped at his elegantly woven ring-gripped sword. "I can be very...persuasive."

"By which you mean...?" the young Reagent asked, pausing for an adequate explanation. The mercenary captain sighed in disgust and stepped out of the shadows, revealing his thin, defined figure and his deep facial features. His eyes were thin from his life of constantly furrowing them, his nose had an angular beak form and his lips were thin wisps of flesh above a pointed chin.

"I'm going to kill them" he said slowly, almost condescendingly.

"I can't allow that" the guard captain insisted. "I'm sorry, but what if these men are here on business of peace rather than war? We could be labeled as instigators in this conflict!"

"NO! It's HORRIFIC!" A young man shouted from out of the hall. He ran in soon after, clutching a bleeding stump at his shoulder, and dove onto a table.

"What the hell!?" a soldier shouted.

"What happened!?" another asked.

"What now?" the Reagent man concernedly asked.

"A man" the soldier said in short breaths "is at the gates. He is demanding something...about us. He wants...to fight you...Captain..." The man drew one final, pained breath and rolled off the table dramatically. His comrades gathered around him and tried to heal and revive him with no avail. He was dead.

"Poor guy" a soldier remarked.

"Yeah" another added. "Now he won't get his next payment."

"He'll never get to fight again" another said somberly.

"Who was he?" some soldier asked.

"Men!" the mercenary captain called. All the seedy, nefarious criminals of war turned to their captain with mixed looks of duty and disgust. "Form a perimeter. We cannot let some renegade outsiders bring war to us! If their intentions are truly peace then they are going about it in a completely incorrect way. We will fight them back, and for every head you bring I shall award an extra ration of riches!"

"YAAAAAAHHHH!!!" the mercenaries cried. The bitterness they had for their weak leader dissolved instantly upon hearing the wonderful news about their potential bonuses. This man manipulated the masses through his charismatic qualities, his rugged handsomeness, his political absolutism. He was a general fighting for his proper ranking in an unorganized army. He had won the respect and admiration of hundreds, and the fear and loathing of thousands for his tactics and his forces.

"**Guy Rose!**" The Reagent called. The Mercenary captain, Guy, turned slowly to the short man seated beside him and watched him stand with arms crossed. "I forbid you to fight. It will only result in unwanted damage to the morale of your men if you are injured. Instead, send out your ringer, that **man you keep in the box.** That is my demand. You cannot change my orders."

"Of course, sir" Guy said patronizingly. "I wouldn't do it any other way..."

* * *

"TCH!" Hoji shouted. "You think you're so big!? Come on out here! I've got enough muscle and more than enough metal for all of you punks and bitches!!!" Hoji started stomping around on the stone-tiled floor of the mayoral palace's main foyer. He was standing in a large, open room with decorative flowers on the walls and an ornamental rug spanning from the main doors he busted open to the first main staircase. "I can't believe this" Hoji growled to himself. "I get here first and there's barely anyone to fight! Just those three weak-ass guards and that one that ran off. Maybe I should chase him..."

"You there!" a man shouted from upstairs. He came running down, hands on the rail, and drew out his sword once he reached the ground level with Hoji. "Surrender! You're surrounded."

"Really?" Hoji said, mocking total surprise. He whipped his head around and started pacing fearfully away from the door, constantly taunting the mercenary with his sarcastic antics of fear. "Wow! You guys move fast! You're all over the damn place, and you hide so well that I can't even see you!"

"Who the hell are you!?" the man asked, sinking his torso down low and holding his sword far out in front of him. Hoji noticed him and turned his back, still gaping and quietly awing mockingly to provoke his opponent. "Answer me! What is your name, dammit!!!" The man ran forward and lunged forward with a stab. Hoji was instantly standing on the blade, arms crossed and sword drawn in his hand. The man was paralyzed in shock.

"I don't see the need" Hoji began "for a corpse to know my name." The man stood silently in shock for a moment more while Hoji jumped off his blade and landed gracefully behind him. The man started oozing precious blood from his mouth, and just as he noticed that he had been stabbed repeatedly in the torso. He collapsed, dead almost instantly, a victim of unnecessary circumstance from the impatient Hoji Araijin.

"Come on out" Hoji called. "I wasn't joking. You're all damn good at hiding..." Just then, from seemingly nowhere, a battalion of armed men dropped down in their hemmed garb. They came from the rugs that hung on the walls, from under the rug on the floor, between the columns in the hallways, through the shadows; an army out of nothing stood ready to fight Hoji. "...let's just hope you're good at fighting!" Hoji growled. For their sake they better be...


	61. Attack of the Wild Tiger

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Suichi asked.

"Wherever" Shin answered back. Both men were trapped in an inky darkness that didn't seem to end. Complete lightlessness enveloped them from all sides. Suddenly, along the way, they both felt a sudden drop and began falling from up high. Shin and Suichi reacted on dissimilar instincts and grabbed up, clutching onto a smooth and pleasing fabric that they had just fallen through. The ceiling tapestry that had dropped them and now held their weight started to give way and both shinigami found themselves swinging down on a thick, red robe of cloth.

"Holy hell!" Suichi shouted. Shin stayed stern and kept his eyes forward. A wall was coming up and the drop from as high up as they were would surely break something essential.

"Suichi" Shin shouted. "Get ready to run."

"What!?" Suichi asked. He looked forward and saw the same wall, then he smiled. "Race ya!"

"You're really gutsy today" Shin casually mentioned. As they neared the wall the prepared their legs and once close enough they planted them. From parts unknown these two had entered the upper levels of the palace, leaving the bottom floor to their impatient comrade. Shin and Suichi raced along the wall, holding tightly the same long piece of fabric as they went, until gravity suddenly jerked them down.

"Oops" Shin droned. He held the cloth out in front of him and looked at it. Then he looked up at the fluttering other end as it flew from off of the ceiling. "Well, what's a leg or two?"

"Keep running!" Suichi said. He was leaned so far into the wall that his shoulder was nearly touching it, but somehow he was defying gravity to the point where his feet fell nearly flat on the sideways surface. Shin picked up on his technique and tried hard to imitate it. He started tapping the wall as he fell with his feet while drawing himself in with his shoulders, but in the end he was still falling down!

"HOW!?" Shin shouted as he lost distance quickly. "Screw it" Shin growled. He took out his sword and dug it into the stone. _This isn't the time or place to practice crap like that. I just need to survive long enough to fight._

_Why not try it?_ Shikei asked from within. _If Suichi can do it then you can perfect it! You could even run as if on a flat surface like the ground with your body straight out away from the wall._

_Shut up_ Shin chided. _I'm smarter than that. I'll figure it out later. For now, living is good enough._

_If you say so..._ Shikei responded. At length the two were able to find the proper ground to set themselves down and rested for a moment.

"That" Suichi said between panting "has to be some kind of record!"

"You're just full of awesome today" Shin praised. "Now if you could only fight that well." Suichi finished catching his breath and stretched his back by pressing it near his hip and leaning back. With a loud sigh of comfort he looked around and placed a wary hand on the hilt of his sword. Shin sheathed his but kept his grip tight.

"This is weird" Suichi noted.

"Yeah" Shin agreed. It hadn't dawned on them until right now, but the hallway they were in was taller and wider than the palace was from outside. The length they had run was easily twice the length of the block the palace was on. The height of the ceilings was nearly double the width of the hall. Shin looked up and could see the single piece of tapestry that had fallen and was still falling. The he looked back behind him and growled.

"Suichi" Shin called. "Shouldn't that end of the hall be...farther away?" Suichi turned around and saw, some few meters away, the high, stone-and-mortar wall they scaled from outside and entered in from the shaded space above the ceiling. Suichi was visibly shocked and agitated with his mouth wide open in pained exclamation. "Well...dammit."

"That's it?" Suichi asked. "Just dammit? Where's the real anger, Shin? I'm pissed as hell!"

"So swear" Shin said. He sat down, legs crossed and hands lazily placed in his lap, to meditate on the current situation. "Right now what we need to do is assess ourselves." Suichi was moved a bit by Shin's unusual calmness. He stared blankly for a moment, then joined his powerful ally on the floor with his fists peacefully together in his lap. They both breathed slowly and took in their entire abnormally huge environment, looking for an explanation for the absurdity of the world...

* * *

And while his friends contemplated existential thoughts, Hoji spun his sword around by its tassel high above his head with an open palm in front of his face. He was surrounded completely by men shifting constantly as they waited for an unexpected attack. Hoji had his eyes closed and was spinning slowly around with his sword, feeling the wind it made and making a plan for his slaughter based on where the currents blew.

_Tch_ he thought. _There's a lot of them. Like...damn, a lot, and I can tell that these aren't even the top guys, too. This could be bad. I mean, obviously I outskill these guys one-to-a-thousand, but they can still outmaneuver my defense._

_So if defense won't work_ Torakaze said in her sophisticatedly luring voice, _what should you do?_ Hoji grinned. He stopped spinning and moved his hand away from his face so everyone could see the malice in his toothy smile. He stopped spinning his sword and took it in its most peculiar grip. Energy started swirling calmly around him, most of which the mercenaries could see.

"No!" one shouted. "Don't let him release!"

"Rip and Tear" Hoji began. The soldiers wouldn't allow him to finish his incantation. They rushed in to get him out of his position, but unfortunately they hadn't predicted Hoji being as amazing as he was. Without moving his hands out of their proper form on the handle he effortlessly blocked and pushed away each attack. Utilizing his strong upper-body and whipping his powerful hips in rhythm with his shoulders he fended off enough of the attackers to prove just how futile a plotless rush on him was. And so, he finished with an angry, growling flourish...

"_**TORAKAZE!!!!**_**" **Wind exploded from his arms. The sword became two gauntlets of gold, his shikai the 'Tiger Wind', and he posed with them, lowering one and raising the other up with a bent elbow so the claw was at eye level. He tilted his head down so only the manic whites of his eyes shined out to the fearful mercenary army.

"What the hell!?" one soldier shouted in disbelief. "Wind? Where's all this wind coming from?"

"It's that guy!" another said. "His shikai, he can create...wind!"

"That's right!" Hoji shouted, pointing with a flick of his finger. The force of his casual little flick caused a group of soldiers to barrel into the wall and some straight out the door into the street. Aside from the initial shock of getting literally blown away by a man's _finger_ they were fine. "Torakaze can create and control the wind! It's more powerful than any one of your pitiful little sticks!" The men all growled in retort...although they held back the shame that Hoji was right.

"Forget him!" a rogue soldier shouted. "Come on! We still outnumber him 50-1!"

"There's only fifty of you?" Hoji asked. "Tch. I thought there were more." The soldiers all rushed in with blades high overhead and prepared to attack with all the barbaric verve they had harnessed and trained for over the years as professional soldiers of fortune. They didn't stand a chance. Hoji parted his legs, keeping them straight without locking his knees, and brought the bladed palms of his gauntlets together. Merciless winds started forming around his hands.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "You guys have no idea the crap you just ran into!" Despite his warning they continued approaching with swords ready to cut, gnash, slice and tear. Hoji clamped down hard with his hands and then quickly separated them with a mirrored motion, flinging his arms far out to the side. "Rip them all to pieces! _**Shinkuuken: Mugoi Danmaku!!!**_" In a horrific whip of wind and a silent blast of air, every man succumbed to the attack Hoji unleashed. Waving scars like tiger stripes appeared on the bodies and arms of each individual within the range of Hoji's blast. The others who were just outside the attack's radius were blown away and fell to the hard ground head-first.

Hoji stood tall among the scattered human debris. He straightened himself out and rolled his shoulders until his neck clicked. He winced at it and ribbed at the sore spot, being careful not to apply enough pressure to actually rend himself up. All his victims were losing enough blood to at least stay unconscious for the rest of the fight, and he could kill them at his leisure.

"Tch" he scoffed. "That wasn't even fun. You guys aren't worth any more of my time." And so Hoji began walking away from the battlefield. He kept his shikai active as he walked toward the stairs, sure that any political figure would be nestled somewhere deep within the palace and surrounded by elite guards, and kept his sense of pride just under the cautiousness of his gait. There was no trace of spiritual pressure for him to worry about, but he stayed ready just in case.

_That was impressive_ Torakaze praised.

"Tch" Hoji again scoffed, "no it wasn't. That's a basic move. I could have just spun around on my toes and held my hands out, the air blades would have killed them all. Right now I just don't have that kind of time."

_Well it still would have been impressive_ Torakaze continued _if you would have at least given them some kind of lenience. You are a monster, after all._

"Heh" Hoji smirked, "you're right. Next time someone wants to fight, I'm going all out. It's _Kaijuu_ time, baby!"

"Well here's an opportunity!" a manly voice called. From far above the hall Hoji now found himself in a man dropped down. This shinigami, dressed like the others in eccentric garb, held in his hand a pre-released sword of strange design. He was taller than Hoji, with his head shaved clean, and his sword was great and broad with three long teeth-like spikes along the bladed edge in precise intervals from the tip to the handguard. He stood fully erect and looked down from his nose at the little shinigami with the golden gauntlets and stomped forward.

"Go ahead" the man said in a loud and annoyingly prideful voice, "try and fight me, monster!!!" He took his sword, in one hand, and smashed it down faster than Hoji could follow. Hoji didn't flinch, as he saw the trajectory of the sword before it was swung and he knew it wouldn't hit him. It slammed into the floor beside him, kicking up dust and chunks of stone tiling with a blast of air, but Hoji still stayed firm in his pose. "I am the first-grade lieutenant of the Rose Revolution, **Yergle Mundus!**"

"Yergle!?" Hoji said with an amused grin. He nearly broke out laughing but bit his lip to stifle it and furrowed his brow to force his anger back to the surface. Hoji then snapped his arm into Yergle's sword and moved it out of the stone floor and into the air. He then jumped back to the wall that separated the hall from the stairs he had just ascended and landed on all fours, claws forward and toes to the floor behind.

"Nice to meet you, Mundus" Hoji greeted. "I'm Hoji Araijin, and you're **dead meat!** _Kaijuuryuu!!!_"

"Monster?" Yergle repeated curiously. "What is this? Some kind of strange shinigami ritual? Very well. Come at me, Hoji Araijin! Come at me with all your might!"

* * *

"Got it" Shin said suddenly. Suichi opened his eyes and turned to his friend curiously.

"Got what?" Suichi asked.

"Hoji" Shin answered. "I finally picked up on his spirit pressure. He's getting ready to fight someone and he's serious."

"That doesn't sound good" Suichi said. Shin stood up and Suichi followed. "We should try to find him and help out."

"He can handle it" Shin said. "Trust me, if Hoji is getting serious it means he's going to win. He never stays serious for long if he feels like he might lose, then he gets focused and angry."

"Well" Suichi began "then we should try to find a way out of here."

"I already have" Shin said. He drew out his sword slowly and positioned it in a reverse grip at the floor. "I've figured out the trick that got us in here. It's kido. I just have to kill the illusion and we'll be fine."

"Why is everything death with you?" Suichi asked, almost scarcastically.

"Because" Shin replied, raising his sword up and preparing to stab hard, "I _am_ death." With a grunt of rage he sliced into the floor, finding it oddly permissive, and then took a hard step forward. His step carried his shoulder and with a snap of his hips his blade sang straight through the stone floor and up into the air. "_**Joushou Kyoufu!!!**_" The path he had cut started to bubble up with an intangible blackness. Then, all at once, a huge slicing wave of sheer power ripped out and blasted its way across the endless hallway. The air started cracking like glass, and the barrier that surrounded Suichi and Shin was shattered. The blade of screaming black pressure continued traveling until it hit a wall, cut through it, and hit another unseen wall. Such was the terrible power of Shin Kenpachi.

"Oh crap" Shin growled. He looked around at the curiously edged walls of mortar gray and then up at the ancient and battle-worn ceiling. Shackles from countless prisoners were bolted into the stone wall. Four tiny cracks of light shone down from the outside. Plague and bile ran rampant across the floor.

"Claver bastards" Suichi said. "They sent us straight to prison." Suddenly a door of metal slammed shut. Shin and Suichi whipped their neck around and saw, to no surprise at all, a group of men locking them both into their cell.

"Ha!" one soldier shouted mockingly. "Joke's on you, stupid shinigami! We captured you before you even got into the palace hallways!"

"You've been under our spell the whole time!" another mocked loudly. The group shared a loud and annoying guffaw at Shin's expense. Suichi backed away as he could feel his bones starting to creak.

"What are you so worried about" Shin asked to his ally. The soldiers all suddenly stopped laughing and started quietly worrying. The air around Shin looked dark and malicious. They could see his pressure crushing everything around him as he unconsciously blasted it out. A pitch-black curtain of his power draped itself over everything. The bones of ancient prisoners shattered into dust that neatly settled into skull-shaped piles. "It's not like...you're going to die..." Shin's trailing voice, coupled with his glowing white eyes in a barrier of black, made most of the men freeze in horror.

"Oh crap" one man muttered. "We're going to die!"

"Calm down!" another said with panic in his voice. "He-he can't break through this metal with his sword! It's enchanted metal! We're safe as long as we're on the other side of these bars!" Suddenly Shin was meeting the men with nothing but the bars separating them. He had flashed over with such graceful speed that no one, not even Suichi, picked up on it.

"You think magic metal bars can stop me?" Shin asked with a low and breathy voice. "You're an idiot. **Nothing stops Death.**" It was over. The villains and mercenaries had never predicted detaining death itself. With a quick sweep of his blade, Shin decapitated the lot of them and crushed their bodies into a fine mist, all of which shined with a brilliant shade of black in his field of deathly pressure...

And now he just had to figure one last thing out.

"Dammit!" he exclaimed, lifting his field upon ruining his mood. The bars were still intact, although the rust seemed to have shifted when his sword went through them. He attempted to touch the metal with his sword, but it just phased through like the bars were made of liquid. It was even harder to pull his sword out when he tried. Then he touched it with his hand, and it was pure cold metal. "Now what?"

"More meditation?" Suichi asked. Shin sighed. It was going to be a long day...

* * *

Shinkuuken: Mugoi Danmaku = Vacuum Blade: Merciless Barrage  
Joushou Kyoufu = Rising Dread  
Random note: Please, feel free to mock my inability to make up meaningful names on the fly in the reviews. In fact, I encourage it.


	62. Hoji Araijin versus Yergle Mundus

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

It was obvious from the start of the battle: Hoji had an advantage in movement. However, as the fighting went on, Mundus showed that he had the real edge in sheer speed. Hoji tucked and rolled out of the way of yet another floor-cleaving slice, then screeched to a halt in the wide, open corridor he was fighting in. He stood up, claws curled into fists, and glared his opponent down, still struggling not to burst out laughing at his name.

"Is it frightening?" Yergle asked.

"Not as much as you face" Hoji said.

"Oh?" Yergle grunted. "So, my manly, warrior's appearance has stricken you, has it? You find it difficult to move with the sheer force of my amazingly rugged, deep features, and you are terrified of the glint in my eyes! Yes! I am quite a scary man, Mr. Shinigami!"

"Dude" Hoji said, "that was an insult. I was calling you so ugly that it's scary."

"WHAT!?" Yergle shouted angrily. "I won't be taken lightly, you bald sarcastic knave!"

"Bald...?" Hoji lowed.

"You see" Yergle began, "my sword can move as fast as any man in a full motion Flash Step. It is an attack I call 'Sonic Strike'! My sword is named for one of the living world's fastest animals, _**Ahoudorikiba!**_"

"Bald!?" Hoji spat with a much greater amount of disdain. Yergle could see a hateful energy swirling around, his enemy obviously deeply insulted by his observation.

"Uh" Yergle began nervously, "well, you don't have a lot of hair...at all...anywhere on your head, do you?" One flash step later, Yergle's mouth was shut. Hoji delivered a flying kick, propelling himself with a clean raking motion with his clawed hands, and ground his foot in hard until he could feel the teeth in his mouth shifting position. The kick shot Yergle as far back as the wall behind him where he settle loudly into a hole that his back graciously made, then sank back down to the floor with his knees buckled and hands gripped painfully around the hilt of his sword. Hoji posed, one foot on the ground and the other high up in the air with knee bent, his torso angled to be straight from his hips and then curve up near his chest so his head was straight up and tilted to the side. A martial-arts pose, one would imagine.

"I ain't bald, jackass" Hoji said in a very even tone. "I've got a pigtail on the back of my head. I can understand calling me bald, however, since it's hard to see."

"Oh no worries" Yergle shakily said from his spot on the ground. "It was my mistake...I suppose..." Hoji kicked into the air, set his foot down, and brought both his arms in with fists turned up and muscles pumped. He drew them in, winding them up for what looked like two punches at once, and breathed deeply. Yet another take on martial arts in this place and time of shinigami culture.

"You bastard" Yergle cursed in a high-pitched whisper. "I'll kill you here and now! **Swoop!**" At his called his sword made a strange hum. Hoji noticed it and took a defensive action. He parted his legs and brought his arms together in a cross against his chest. In a flash of untraceable movement Yergle swung his sword in a perfect, horizontal swing at Hoji and an invisible blade of air roared across the hall.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed with a smirk. He stepped forward, parted his arms and slashed the air-blade into pieces with his claws. The scattered fragments of Yergle's attack blew chunks of stone out of the walls and tattered the rug on the floor in many random places. "What was that? A wind-based attack?" Yergle looked confused, as if his attack not working had never happened before, and he struggled to get himself up. "You may as well give up now. **Torakaze is the King of Wind based attacks!**"

* * *

_You know I'm a woman, right?_ Torakaze reminded its somewhat incompetent wielder.

_Shut the hell up, dammit!_ Hoji snarled internally, keeping his face plastered with a cocky grin and glaring eyes. _He doesn't need to know that, you bitch!_

"My, my!" Yergle said in strangely good spirits. "That was unprecedented! No one has ever been able to avoid my 'Swooping Gale' attack, let alone deflect and dismiss it! HAHAHA! I feel quite foolish!"

"I don't get it" Hoji said flatly. Yergle stopped chuckling long enough to watch Hoji teleport with remarkable speed right up to him, faces mere inches apart. "I mean, I don't get why a corpse is in such a good mood all of a sudden." Yergle was honestly stunned by the sheer bluntness Hoji had used in called him already dead. Hoji rotated his hips and kicked Yergle in the jaw. Before he even staggered into the wall Hoji super-sonic-flashed his was to the side that was falling in a crouch with his hands down and wrists together. With his palms flat out he shot a sudden, full-body propelled blast into Yergle's side.

"Guharghblgk!" Yergle shouted in pain, sparing no expense in illustrating how much Hoji's open-palm blast had hurt him. He started drifting quickly up, but not before Hoji could move. He appeared suddenly with his feet planted on the wall in the exact spot Yergle was flying at and drew back a ready hand to punch. Yergle kicked himself around and spun, facing Hoji with a ready sword. He swung fast, but apparently it wasn't fast enough. When the lines stopped blurring it was seen clearly that Hoji had caught the sonic blade in his forward hand, the other still wound far back for a devastating punch.

_Let it go!_ Torakaze blared in warning. Hoji's eyes widened for a moment and he released the blade. Then, sensing another attack imminent, he warped away and skidded to a stop on the floor with his claws digging up the stone beneath the rug. Yergle had indeed swung, not just once, but three times where Hoji was at. Based on the trajectory and the power of each swing, Hoji knew that Yergle was mad. He had swung for his neck, his heart, and his groin all in less than a flash. Now Yergle floated gently back down, dragging his sword along the wall to slow his fall, and glowered at Hoji through the shadows of his beady eyes.

_What happened?_ Hoji asked his sword.

_I could feel something_ Torakaze explained _severely wrong about that sword. It was...actually hurting me to touch it. It's far too sharp to catch, that is for certain, but just coming in contact with it on any side may be detrimental._

_Tch_ Hoji grunted internally. His frustration expressed mentally, he tensed up in a low position with claws bared and legs wound up to pounce. "Tch" he grunted angrily.

"What's the matter, little kitty?" Yergle asked. "Oh no, that's right. You said you use some style called _Kaijuryuu?_ Well then, Mr. Monster, what is bothering you?"

"Shut up" Hoji lowed. "I haven't got all the time in the damn world to screw around here. I've gotta meet my friends."

"Oh, silly boy" Yergle chuckled. He started breaking out in a mad laughter that lasted all of three seconds. Then he became frighteningly mad. "You're friends are already dead!" Hoji was stunned, not by the news, but by the desperation and booming fierceness that was in Yergle's voice.

Yergle charged forward, abandoning his safety and turning up the heat on Hoji. Hoji started quickly hopping away as his enemy approached, and when he saw an attack coming his way, he warped up to the ceiling and clawed his fingers into the rafters. Yergle swung, throwing a flash-speed air-blade down the long, wide hallway.

Hoji hit the ground far behind Yergle and then warped in, back to back, to throw a fist above his head and backhand Yergle in the head. Yergle wasn't daunted by the hit, but he registered it. He began spinning on his heel with sword at the ready and attempted to slice Hoji down with a flash-speed chop. Hoji was already gone, staying behind his opponent and controlling his blind spot.

"You can't stop the wind" Hoji growled. Yergle picked up the voice from behind, turned his sword blade around, and threw a swing blindly behind him. The act of desperation proved more foolish than anything, as the speed and power that carried his arm dislocated and disjointed it from the shoulder.

"GYAAAH!" Yergle shrieked in pain. He struggled to readjust his arm while Hojji moved in to continue his attack. He dropped down form high above where he retreated to avoid the bladewave the sword made and now, with fists tightly knotted, he was ready to attack. He stepped straight up to Yergle's open torso and planted his feet sternly into the ground.

"TCHYAAAA!!!" Hoji roared. He attacked with a solid, powerful punch to the chest. Then he followed by twisting his body and delivering another punch to the chest. He twisted his hips again and punched, again and punched, punch, punch punch punch punch PUNCH PUNCH PUUUNCH!!! "HUOOOOAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Hoji roared with an undulating pitch.

"BLBLBLBLBLBLBLBUUGH! BLUUGH!" Yergle shouted in retort with the rapid-fire pain. The attack became more comical than effective at this point, but Hoji continued letting his fists flow like raging, fiery wind in a hurricane!

* * *

"_**Otakebiarashi no KEN!!!"**_ Hoji announced. His fists were moving with amazing, almost arcane speeds. The space between Hoji's torso and Yergle's was filled with a strange, golden blur of rapid movement neither fighter could really trace with their eyes. It was a remarkable burst of speed and a succession of blasts that never lost their power.

In the midst of the blinding barrage a loud crack was heard. Yergle noticed, through the streaming fire of pain in his chest, that his shoulder was set back into place. Yergle noticed, but he didn't know if Hoji had noticed or not. Regardless, he knew that no matter how quick on his feet or hands, Hoji wouldn't be able to dodge an attack this close.

"HRGH!" Yergle grunted. Hoji's eyes shot open in realization and he retreated with a flash-step backwards. The sword came blazing down and nearly struck him, but because Hoji stayed on the ground the resulting air blade did hit him. His arms had stopped moving, he realized, when they should have moved up to block. Now he was cut from hip to shoulder, a shallow gash made by the sharpened edge of an air-cutting sword.

"You can take that" Yergle said, pointing his sword up "with a side of rice, knave!" Hoji raised his upper lip and started snarling. He threw his hands to the ground and slid his feet back. His muscles tensed as his back arched up and flaring white hatred coursed through his eyes.

"**KAIJURYUU!!!!**" Hoji screamed. He became an animal in an instant, a real monster. With amazing movement he came barreling down on Yergle, throwing punches and kicks that were so fast they could not only not be seen but they couldn't be felt for moments after they were received by the skin. Hoji never stayed in one place long. He would throw a myriad of hyper-speed punches and kicks, warp away, and appear somewhere else to continue his flurry.

"Stay still!" Yergle demanded. A swift open-palm blast to the face shut him up. He started swinging blindly, hitting and slicing the air, hoping he could catch Hoji as he moved form here to there. At last, when Hoji's barrage stopped, Yergle swung deep and heavy in one random direction. The air-blade that traveled tore up the floor and slammed into Hoji. Rather than slice through him, Hoji caught it with his bladed fingers and let it carry him all the way down the hall. He finally was able to rip it to shreds and skid on his feel to a stop.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, staying up on the balls of his feet. "Great. A range game. This guy's got the upper hand on me, no kidding, but at least I dented his body up before he threw me over here. Even if he wants to, he can't swing at full power anymore..." The hall was silent for a moment. Hoji relaxed and stood plainly, arms straight at his sides, and waited for something to come at him from the faraway darkness. Then suddenly, a blade of air came spiraling towards Hoji. He flash-stepped out of the way and sighed. A hundred or so more blades were coming into view. Hoji bared his claws before his face, crossing his arms near the wrists, and prepared to defend as best he could...

"TAKE IT ALL!" Yergle shouted madly. His blade was swinging in his arm faster than he himself could follow. All he knew is that his endless barrage of blades had a destined path for Hoji's neck. Once blade would be enough, he knew, and that one would eventually find its way to its target. With such a small shikai as his, Hoji could only defend against so many blades at once. "This is my ultimate technique, heh heh! The darkest attack in my arsenal! _**Surudoimori!!!**_" The blades kept ringing out of thin air, flying righteously down the corridor to attack Hoji Araijin at the far end.

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed angrily. His fists were moving as rapidly as they could, but he knew it was in vain. The blades were endless, unlike his stamina, which was nearly at its final stretch. His strength had been sapped from the attacks he made earlier. His breathing started to become heavy and dry. He could see a sliver of darkness grow into a curtain of sleep. He was at his end, finally, and with one final and desperate motion he exhausted whatever was left of his low energy. Hoji disappeared somewhere once again, this time not to return to battle.

* * *

"HAHHHH!!!" Yergle triumphantly laughed with a wheezing breath at the end. He was face-up on the floor, breathing laboriously with his sword out of its shikai and lazily gripped in his right hand. The wing-like hand guard reflected in its true nature, a bird more swift and agile than any other creature in the living world. "As always, I am the victor! My Sonic Slicer is invincible! Great job, _Ahoudorikiba_, as always you performed to my excellent standards...huhhh..."

"Get over yourself" Hoji growled from behind. Yergle's eyes shot wider than ever before. His eyes shrank and almost became white in shock. He wasn't able to turn around, but if he could he would see Hoji, covered in the fresh cuts and shallow lacerations that the last-ditch ability _Surudoimori_ had given him. His shikai was disengaged as well and his blade had all but lost its polished sheen. It looked almost dilapidated and old, an aged blade ravaged by war. "I'll admit, you were tough, but not beyond me. Now get up. I'm not killing a man lying on his damn back."

"Guh...!" yergle groaned in shock.

"I thought so" Hoji lowed. He tabbed his sword to his shoulder, feeling it shake and rattle inside its own hilt. He winced at the pain in a manly way and started walking forward. "I'm about to do your pansy-ass team mates a favor, here. I can't fight anymore, but if it were really up to me and my honor I _would_ keep fighting, despite what this nagging bitch has to say about it." Hoji shook his sword so Yergle, who still could not see or move to see, would understand just what he meant. "Therefore, I'm just going to kill you...and then I'm going to leave."

"What?" Yergle demanded. "Wh...why leave? If you've killed me, why not depart and keep fighting until you die? Surely a warrior like you has a better place to be than-"

"SHUT UP!" Hoji blared. He slapped a hand to his face and rubbed his weary muscles. "It's because I'm a warrior with honor and integrity that I can't fight to my death." Yergle cursed at himself. His only plan left, to send this dying shinigami into the lion's den, had failed in a way he didn't expect. "There's no honor in killing a dead man. Once I cut off your head I'm going to exit stage...wherever and wait for my friends to finish up."

"I don't understand you..." Yergle admitted. "...Mr. Shinigami."

"Araijin" Hoji corrected. Yergle closed his eyes and finally accepted sweet mercy in his painful moments of life.

"Mr. Araijin" he sighed. Hoji brought his sword up high, then swung down low.

Blood hit the walls and stained the tapestry. Yergle Mundus was dead, and his shamed killer sheathed his sword to retire outside in hiding. Hoji would wait in the shadows fearfully for the wrath Shin would have prepared for him later...

* * *

Ahoudorikiba: Albatross Fang  
Otakebiarashi no Ken: Fist of the Roaring Tempest  
Surudoimori: Sharp Forest


	63. The Infamous Name

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

While Hoji fought in the castle above, Shin and Suichi sat in the prison cell contemplating a way out. So far Shin's plan to kill the bars with brute force wasn't working and his knuckles were starting to bleed from punching the walls and bars.

"Dammit" Shin growled. "No one traps me like this! I'm killing these bastards once I get out!"

"They're already dead, Shin" Suichi said calmly, meditating in the corner. Shin stopped for a moment to shake off the pain and fresh blood on his hands. He looked back to see his perfectly tranquil comrade thinking nothing of their current state.

"Oi" Shin said, "what's with you? Shouldn't you be panicking more than me right now? I feel stupid acting out like a maniac on my own. Aren't you gonna help me?"

"I've been in a cell before, Shin" Suichi said. "I was a rookie at one point. I made mistakes. I'm just glad those mistakes landed me in a dungeon and not a crucifixion post."

"Cruci...who?" Shin asked cluelessly. Suichi got up, clapped his hands together and started walking toward the bars.

"Crucifixion" Suichi corrected. "In some lands they use it as torture or death. It's pretty brutal from what I've heard. They nail your hands and feet to an X-shaped post and whip you for a while. The can also angle it so you suffocate from the strain put on your chest."

"Cool" Shin flatly said. Suichi nervously twitched at Shin's short and plain observation and placed a hand on the magical bars. It didn't pass through like Shin's sword did. Instead he took a breath, gripped it hard, and concentrated. A chilling blur started picking up. Shin could see the full field of Suichi's pressure mixing with his aura, forming an icy border of energy around him. Shin stepped back as he felt the chill getting to him and left the field that Suichi was concentrating into his hand.

"I've seen bars that work like this before" Suichi noted. "They're made of spiritually-attuned water."

"Really?" Shin asked. He saw the metal of the bars start to flake off and chip rapidly. The bars were peeling apart, as if in layers, and some parts simply shattered off in little frozen explosions. "So it turns to liquid when it comes into contact with a sword."

"Any metal" Suichi said. "Swords, released swords, anything but kido or spiritual energy will just get trapped and eventually absorbed into its liquid form." Suichi sighed loudly and and tightened his grip on the bar. It broke in his palm, then fully shattered into a hail of icy shrapnel to the cold, unforgiving floor where it broke even more. When the pressure lifted and Shin could no longer feel the stinging cold he stepped forward into the snow.

"Why aren't you always this useful?" Shin asked. Suichi chuckled nervously.

"Hey!" a random voice shouted. Suichi's head tilted up when he heard it and he stepped into the longer dungeon hallway that was bordered with cells. Bandits and criminals from the village were being held behind the semi-metal bars and had faces that hungered, starved almost, for freedom. "Hey, how'd you do that!?" the bandit shouted.

"Huh?" Shin grunted. "More people are down here?"

"Apparently" Suichi answered. "What should we do?"

"Why don't you free us?" a bandit suggested.

"Yeah" another testified. "We swear, on our honor as thieves, whatever you want us to do we'll do it! We'll be in your debt for life!"

"You must be joking" Shin lowed as he stepped into the light. He turned with a swift motion of his neck to glare down the hall of cells with an angry scowl. "There is no honor among thieves. You just want to stab our backs." The thieves all fell dreadfully silent.

_Damn him!_ A thief shouted internally, trying to keep his ugly face as solid as he could. _How did he see past our perfect ruse!?_

"I ain't helping out" Shin resolved "a bunch of miscreants and thugs."

"Then you'll just wind up back here!" a thug shouted. Shin's bangs cast a shadow over his brow, hiding his eyes in the terrible blackness and stealthily glowered the bandits down. Their desperation was just more offsetting to him than anything. "Come on! Be a pal. I'm sure we have the same goal in mind...Shin Kenpachi." Shin's eyes flew open and the shadows lifted. Unconsciously Shin let out a boom of his deathly spirit pressure which shook and stunned all the men in the prison.

"Shin...?" Suichi nervously asked. He felt the power harder than anyone, but he was still standing. Several men had already fainted.

"Release them" Shin said. He had returned from his state of shock and assumed his stern character as a leader and fighter. "We could use the extra muscle, even if they end up being nothing but meat for the grinder." The bandits were cautiously optimistic about their early parole. Every guard had just been taken down by the infamous Kenpachi, and now he was ordering for their lives to be thrown away at his discretion. Suichi concentrated hard on his hands, spreading his pressure in controlled bursts of power to each of the semi-metal cell walls. In no time at all the bandits were free, only a few of the bars holding them back were shattered into a snowy cloud that fell softly to the ground.

"Listen up" Shin growled as the bandits came out with their faces plastered with evil grins and eyes full of deceit. "I'm keep you all on a tight leash. If I sense someone stepping out of line, even by the width of a Hollow's hair, throats are getting cut. And not just one guy. If one of you takes an unapproved step, **all of you are dying.**" The sheer hatred in his voice was enough to make a man drop to the floor and die. The bandits stood fast however, even though their optimistic vagrancy was clouded with fear and dread.

* * *

The bandits, all of whom had either been through the palace before or worked their for a time before the mercenaries came, led Shin and Suichi through the corridors and hallways. Their aim was indeed the same. They all wanted to kill the mercenaries, especially the captain of them, for one reason or another.

"_**Satsugyoushi**_" Shin suddenly said to Suichi.

"What?" Suichi asked. "Death Gaze?"

"My pressure" Shin started "is almost numbing to me. I don't know why, but I can't perceive my own pressure when I exert it. I guess that's why I seem so oblivious to it. The two forces of death from within me and my sword cancel each other out when they're both released at once. Now that I know just how damaging my pressure is, I've decided to use it more opportunistically."

"How so?" Suichi asked.

"I've already named it" Shin said, "that move I used in the dungeon. I figure if I can make eye contact I can probably increase the effects by at least a bit. Until then I need to figure out just how to control it when I can't even feel it."

"Yeah" Suichi said, rubbing his neck, "I can see how that would be a problem."

"Breakout!" a voice called. A guard at the far end of a hall had spotted Shin's group of escaped bandits and was announcing hem to his cohorts in the room that the hall led into. "The prisoners have escaped! To arms! To arms!"

"Dammit" Shin growled. He unsheathed his sword quickly and flashed down the hall. Before another 'to arms' could be called the heralding guard was stabbed in the chest by Shin's icy-cold blade. "Quit drawing attention to us." The guard looked over painfully as Shin slowly drew his sword out. One of Shin's fingers had drifted up to his mouth and his lips were strangely pursed to show his teeth. "We're being sneaky. Shhhh!" The guard dropped to the floor and bled. His body quivered with fear. Shin swung the blood off his sword and then sheathed it with a stylish spin.

"There they are!" another guard, clad in armor, called from the opposite end of the hall. "We've got them cornered!"

"Ah, crap!" a bandit shouted.

"Those bastards were following us!" another noted.

"Shin" Suichi called, "what now?"

"Grab someone" Shin ordered calmly "who knows where to go and get them to me. I'm trusting you with finding the kid and getting him to safety."

"Alright" Suichi confirmed. "Men, kill those guards! Someone go with Shin and escort him to the mercenary captain!"

"I'll go" a random young man shouted. Before he could make his way out of the bandit legion an explosion shook the palace floor. The guards had formed a tight phalanx wall of their double-edged swords and center-grip metal shields.

"Fire again!" the apparent captain shouted. One man pointed his sword forward, mumbled some archaic incantation under his breath and beneath the cover of his shield, and formed a translucent ball of pulsing red energy at the tip of his sword. The ball flickered for a moment, then flew into a bandit, exploding on contact and taking a greater portion of that bandit's body with it.

"Well that's unfortunate" Suichi said.

"We can guide Shin" a bandit said. He stood tall with a sharp goatee beard and messy, thick dreadlocks on his head. He wore a bandanna lazily across his right eye and had behind him three men of large stature wearing masks with swords slung over shoulder. "It's better if we travel as a group, don'cha think?"

"Whatever" Suichi said. He hopped to the front of the line and drew out his sword into his left hand. "Just get Shin to the mercenary captain and he'll do the rest...I guess."

"You got it" the bandit leader affirmed. Shin was growing impatient. As soon as his entourage arrived he jerked his head to the side and ordered them to lead him in a flash-speed dash through the rest of the palace to his final destination.

"Prepare to fire again!" the captain of the guard shouted.

"Coil endlessly" Suichi incanted, "_Haganerensa!_" His sword transformed into a coiling chain that wrapped around his forearm. He drew the arm far back and pointed the metal-tipped middle-finger of his left hand back. "Load long-range shot" he commanded. The chain suddenly became loose and drooped off his arm to the floor. He held up his other arm, keeping it perfectly straight like his other, and lowered the tip of his middle finger to aim. After a moment he picked his target and took a hard step forward.

"Fire!" the guard captain ordered.

"**SNIPE!**" Suichi commanded. He thrust his arm out with a shot and his chain became straight in an instant. The spheres of energy that came from the swords of the guards were blown away by the wind that Suichi's chain tore as it ripped through the air...and the guard' captain's throat. The guard was pinned helplessly with a metal chain pierced through his trachea to the wall. Suichi yanked the chain and it started reeling in, wrapping around his arm as it did.

"Captain!" a guard shouted desperately. The chain shot out just past the line and snapped back into Suichi's hand. The captain was dead, or at least close to it, and the guards were taken completely by surprise.

"Now kill them!" Suichi ordered as the bandits sped past him. "Kill them all with extreme indiscretion!" The bandits roared their battle-cries and unsheathed their wide array of differently stylized swords to fight. The guards took up their shields and identical swords to meet their threat head on. Suichi jumped up to the ceiling and threaded his chain through the stone to give himself a place to observe while the mindless fighting was going on.

"So this is what it feels like to be in charge" Suichi mused. He watched the fighting for several minutes, seeing the superior training of the guards and the barbaric physical prowess of the bandits clashing and the blood that splattered when the two forces collided in a particularly spectacular way. Then he sighed and crossed his arms, hanging onto his chain by his toes. "I wonder if Shin ever gets bored of this..."

* * *

_Well this is nice_ Shin mused to himself. _I'm being tailed by four bloodthirsty bandits who know who I am. I can't recall feeling this uncomfortable in the presence of warriors before. I'm just hoping my back isn't too exposed to them right now..._

"So Kenpachi" the lead bandit began, "where'd you get that name?"

"From a man I killed" Shin answered.

"A duel?" the bandit asked, sounding interested.

"More like a murder" Shin answered. He suddenly stopped his flash-sprinting and stood in the middle of an oddly narrow hallway. "Why do you ask?" The bandits stopped a good ten paces away from Shin, their leader staring with arced brows and a budding grin on his face.

"Hehehe...." the bandit chuckled. "You know, 'Shin Kenpachi' is a really badass name. They both go together so well." Shin was getting suspicious. He gripped the handle of his sword firmly but kept his side facing the bandits so they couldn't quite tell. He just glared at them from under the shade of his bangs. "But you know...the more I saw that wanted poster of yours back in my homeland, the more I got to thinking..." The bandit now started to draw out his sword, one with a straight blade that ended in an angled tip. "**Torsic Kenpachi** sounds even better."

"Torsic" Shin repeated. "That's your name, eh? Well, you already know mine. That's good, one less formality for me to stay awake through."

"What was that?" Torsic asked, tilting his head and cupping a hand to his ear. Shin drew out his sword. The scraping of metal was so deadly and loud in Torsic's amplified hearing that it made him shiver.

"I'm trying to learn the names" Shin said "of my victims so I can find their families later in life to apologize. Also, when someone ever asks me, I can find your tombstone in a graveyard."

"You're pretty damn full of yourself, fool" Torsic lowed. His allies behind him drew out their swords as well, letting the sheathes hit the floor, and prepared for a fight. "You're reputation has made you a windbag, hasn't it? All that fame and infamy has gone to your head!"

"Heh" Shin laughed. "Don't kid yourself. This is the first time I heard that there was an actual **bounty** on my head. And in a foreign region, no less! I've become quite a celebrity in the world, haven't I?"

"You're in over your head" Torsic warned with a sly, evil giggle. He pointed his sword at Shin's face and straightened his back. "I'm a master swordsman. No one has ever faced my blade at full strength and lived! No one can rival me! I will be the next man to inherit the Kenpachi title, and then I'll kill your stupid little friend Hoji Araijin and that annoying Suichi!"

"Or" Shin said. With a flash he was in Torsic's face and floating an inch from the ground. "...you can die." Shin delivered a powerful kick straight to Torsic's face and sent him straight through the palace wall. He flew for a while through the air before he could regain his bearings and flip to land on his feet. When he landed he saw that he was in a huge dining hall with table that had been recently cleared but not yet cleaned. Three thrones were at the farthest end of the high-vaulted, wood-paneled room.

"What'dya know" Torsic said with a mad laugh. "We made it to the throne room anyway! Ha! I wasn't even trying to get here and here I am! My impeccable sense of direction is just another reason I should be able to inherit the illustrious name of Kenpa-"

"**Shut up**" Shin growled. His fearsome voice sent a chill through Torsic's body, but that wasn't the worst feeling he would receive. Shin was in front of him again, sword in hand, and ready to stab. Torsic brought his own sword in with a swoop to deflect Shin's stab, but it didn't work. Shin wasn't going in for a stab at all. With sword in one hand he punched hard with the other, forcing his fist almost through Torsic's hard abs. The blow sent Torsic once again barreling through the air and now it landed him straight against a stone wall. "If all you're going to do is talk then you should do the honorable thing and commit seppuku. I'm not here to socialize...**I'm here to kill...**"

Torsic pried himself from the wall and looked to the hole Shin made earlier. A bloody hand was reaching in from the hallway, frozen in a state of eternal stun.

_Oh well_ Torsic sighed internally. _I guess I'll have to fight him myself..._ Torsic wound his sword up around his chest and jumped up for a cleaving slash. Shin raised his sword to block. Death met metal...

* * *

Satsugyoushi: Death Gaze (just like Suichi said)


	64. Chilling Action

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"Oh no" a guard said shakily, gripping his sword hard. "There's still one left!" Suichi stood tall, arms crossed and feet together, amidst a chaotic and brutal arrangement of bodies. The bandits and guards had killed each other spectacularly, and now only two guards were left to fight the one master mystery assassin.

"So?" the other guard shouted, voice quivering just as much. "There's two of us and one of him. We've obviously got him outnumbered!" Suichi smirked. He uncrossed his arms quickly, grabbing the tip of his chain as it passed over his hand, and let a good measure of his chain reel out in front of him. It floated and moved with snake-like slithering motions.

"Heh" Suichi huffed with amusement. He whipped his wrists and threw his chain down to the ground, still holding onto both ends to keep it tight. He kept one foot planted on the chain and then brought the other one into the chain near his left hand. He tightened the chain from between his two feet while bringing his left hand up, constantly drawing more metal out until both his hands met. "I haven't gotten a good chance to use this technique, mainly because I've never had a mission so out in the open for it."

"Kill him!" both guards shouted. The broke pose and pointed at each other with jutting jaws. "Are you ordering me around!?" they shouted in perfect harmony. Meanwhile, Suichi began cartwheeling rapidly in their direction. He fed the spiked end of the chain into his left hand where it locked in place, allowing his other hand to slip freely along the rest of the chain to make his acrobatics easier.

"_**Bousekirensa**_**!**" Suichi announced as he spun toward the guards. They panicked and charged, drifting apart as they ran. He clacked to the ground a few times before the force of his spin caused him to hover and drift slowly into a horizontal position that came closer to the guard on his right. "Split up if you want. I doubt it'll help you."

"He's lying!" the guard exclaimed. "he can't hit both of us! Just block him with your sword!"

"Quit saying obvious things!!!" the other guard demanded. Suichi neared his target, his sword helplessly up in defense. Suichi spun into the sword, grinding sparks out of the hard metal meeting metal, and after a few revolutions he slowed down with his attack until he was nearly stopped.

"Oh, how shallow of you" Suichi taunted. "This isn't the real attack." Suichi was stopped with his right palm pressing the chain that slipped just between his middle and index fingers, just meeting the blade the guard held. His legs slowly drifted down to the floor, the chain feeding itself around from between the creases his toes made in his sandals. "_**Kasui!**_" Suichi's left leg landed first, and with an axis made of his right arm leading down to his leg, he made a huge kick straight into the guard's unprotected throat and kept his foot there with the chain still somehow attached.

"I'm coming!" the other guard called. Suichi looked over with a grinning glare and opened his left hand. The spike end of his chain was gone, and only an endless coil of chain existed that circled around his form.

"This is the secret form" Suichi explained "of my shikai, I call it _**Hateshinairensa!**_ Now, activate!!!" At his command his chain started moving. Sparks kicked up from the sword he gripped, the floor he stood on, the skin off his own palm that had a bulging protrusion of chain links along the bottom of his fingers where the whole circle started and then the armor of the guard who his foot stayed planted on in a frozen kick. Then the sparks left that place and blood came instead, and Suichi carried his kick through the guard's throat while the rapid rotation of the chain pulled him along the stone floor toward the other guard.

"Whaaaa!?" the guard shouted in quivering, shaking fear.

"_**KASUIIIIIII!!!**_" Suichi roared. He made a short jump with his propelled foot and delivered another rotating roundhouse to the guard's neck. When the attack was over Suichi was free to plant his foot back on the ground and roll along with his chain pulling him along. He hopped off his chain after a short distance was gained between him and his headless opponent, then snapped his left wrist and recalled his weapon into its sword form. "Well, that was fun" Suichi said, sheathing his sword into its scabbard. "I wonder, though, how Shin will fare against the captain of these guards. They certainly weren't pushovers for the bandits, and those bandits weren't just weaklings like we've always met..."

Suichi ended his thoughts prematurely when he felt a disturbing, pulsing resonating pressure coming his way. A powerful opponent, no doubt, was just about to round the corner.

_Oh damn_ Suichi thought. _I need to get somewhere advantageous according to my own abilities. If I fight on a professional fighter's level I'm doomed. I can't even stand up to Shin's pressure for more than a minute!_ Suichi scanned his surrounding sand saw that the hallway did split where the end of the body pile seemed to be. He jumped over the majority of the corpses and then started running down the hall. Just as he left some new presence wandered into the scene of battle and became horrified.

"Great graciousness!" the captain of the militia guards shouted. He reeled back from the scene and began the motions to retreat, but stopped half-way when he saw the freshly decapitated bodies of two of his guards. "Wait a moment...these bodies are fresh. Most of them are, but these two exceptionally so." He walked in to inspect the bodies closer and looked them over. "I've never seen a wound like that. It's unprecedented. Very well. I suppose it is up to me to stop this killer before more havoc is wreaked!" With his adamant resolve the captain of the loyalist guard started running down the hall, carefully and fearfully stepping over the bodies as he went.

* * *

"GYAHA!!!!" the captain shouted as he threw open the door to a random room. No one was there, just a stock of lovely furniture and unused ornaments for the main rooms of the royal palace. "Not in here" he said. He shut the door, walked down the calming-colored carpeted hallway, and tried the next one. "GYAHA-...ah, it's frigid in here..." The captain now entered a room of stone walls, no carpets and strange furnishing. It seemed to be a study of sorts with a myriad of ornamental weapons strewn about the walls on exquisitely carved wooden racks.

"Not in here, I suppose" the captain said. "Ah, misfortune. I thought I left you for good. Well, I could use a break from my searching. I can't be winded when I finally find the culprit behind this mass slaughter!" The captain thusly made his way to a rather long couch and sat down on its with his hands folded in his lap like a proper old man. "Although, I don't know what this man looks like. That's right, I'm just running around with no clue at all. Hmm." With an oddly content smile on his face he began to relax and slouch back into his chair. Then the door slammed shut and a cold breeze kicked up.

"Wonder no more" Suichi said from parts of the room unknown. "I'm here now! Those bandits killed those men just now, as led by me!" The captain instantly rose up from his seat and placed a steady, waiting hand on the handle of his sheathed sword. He looked around intently, keeping on the toes of his metal boots, and waited for his enemy to speak again. Nothing.

"Who are you?" the captain demanded.

"Now, now" Suichi said condescendingly. "Upon my entrance I found the air in this room to be disgustingly stale. I assumed that since it had been abandoned for so long I could claim it as my own. I've never owned a home before, you know. I think I can make do with the space but the furnishing is far too flashy for my style..."

"...EH!?" the captain exclaimed. "What kind of cursed non-sequitor are you going on?"

"This is my home!" Suichi shouted, vice echoing from nowhere at all. "You are a guest, and a guest should introduce himself before demanding things from his host."

"Ah, I agree!" the captain said. He didn't relax his pose at all but at least bothered to put on a smile in his rough beard to appear more friendly. "My name is **Kinden Shinbo, the Militia Captain of Xierd Leek!** What am I to call you, may I ask?"

"Fair enough" Suichi complied. From far above, on the ceiling where an assassin would be comfortable, Suichi appeared out of a gathered tuft of mist that he summoned with his natural aural power to cling to him. He spun on his heels just before decent and pushed off the high-vaulted rafters as he drew out his sword with wide eyes. He had a quick death on his mind. Kinden, however, had the will and the strength to prevent that death. In a motion swifter than wind, their swords met. Suichi held his short stabbing sword with both hands and led it down with his feet. Kinden held his bastard sword up to block.

"I'm Suichi" Suichi said pleasently, admiring the strange new shape of the sword like those the guards carried.

"No family name?" Kinden asked. He suddenly pressed up and swung in an ascending arc, throwing Suichi across the room but not with such force that he couldn't recover. Suichi managed to land and held his sword in his right hand for defense.

"I don't really have a family" Suichi explained. "I'm just Suichi...**the assassin.**"

"GUH!" Kinden shouted. He felt himself falter, his balance fell apart and his mind sank down into his chest for a moment. He nearly fell over, but he caught himself with a stomp. "An assassin!?" he said, his voice quaking oddly. "I thought...such people...that they had all died out with the times..."

"What?" Suichi asked quietly. "Well, the world is currently at turmoil with war, so of course there would be people like me in it who are willing to kill."

"So you're a mercenary?" Kinden asked, becoming strangely hopeful at his own suggestion.

"Most certainly not" Suichi said with a harsh hiss. Kinden started falling into his marked depression once more. _Wait a minute, why does any of that matter? Why am I making small talk when I could be shoving my sword through this guy's skull!?_ "Aren't you going to try and stop me!?"

"Of course I'll try" Kinden said hopelessly, "but against a man who has been trained from birth to do nothing but kill and kill, what chance do I have!?!?!?"

_He's hysterical_ Suichi thought. _No, this is more like ignorant._ "Tell you what. I won't kill you, even if I win, if you can do me a favor."

"I don't need your sympathy!" Kinden suddenly roared with anger. He took his sword, a hexagonal blade with a thick handle and a wide blade that ended in an angled point, and aimed it with one arm holding it out at Suichi's face. "Listen to me well! I do not know what tricks you magical warriors posses but they will do no good against me! I am a master with this blade, and its released form is nearly twice as deadly!"

"Really?" Suichi asked, feeling the blood pool in his head. "Then why don't you show it to me? This shikai of yours?"

"Not quite yet" Kinden growled. "I want to see if its normal form can win yet...so far I haven't had to rely on its released form as much, but why spoil a good thing? Now come, you magical, maniacal murderer! Come and fight me on equal terms!!!"

_What does he think an assassin is?_ Suichi asked himself, squinting judgmentally at his foe. Regardless to his belief, Suichi blasted off from the ground in an explosive dash that stopped just short of Kinden's armored chest and shifted into defense when Kinden started swinging.

* * *

His style was just sloppy enough that Suichi could block his sword and move from side to side with ease. He would swing hard with one hand then make quick, sweeping strikes with both, switching off intermittently. With both hands the strikes were just as hard but quicker, and with only one hand Suichi found himself shaken by the startling amount of movement that Kinden threw out when swinging. He put all of himself, perhaps more, into each slice and stab he made and pushed Suichi around the large room as he fought.

_I may have misjudged this guy_ Suichi thought, taking his shorter sword in both hands and leaping away to land in a defensive crouch. _His power is something else. I can't find an opening to attack, either._

"HHRAH!" Kinden roared. He raised his sword high over his head and held it with both hands. Suichi's perception of his surroundings told him that there was a wall behind him and even that was within the swinging distance of this man's sword. To each side he saw beams of wood jutting just slightly from the wall.

_I'm boxed in!_ Suichi realized. _I have no choice! It's either that...or death!_

"Die, assassin!!!" Kinden shouted. His sword flew down. Suichi could see death coming his way. The sword hit his skull, just a tap...

and he **shattered into sparkling, icy dust!**

"WHAT!?" Kinden shouted. "So this is you magical ability? Turning to ice, eh? I will still defeat you! I will defeat you even if I have to break apart all these shards! Huh!" With a manly grunt he raised his sword up and took it in both hands, the butt end gripped midway in his other hand as the handle was just too short for him to use in both hands fully, and started swinging with amazing speed.

_So that's his secret_ Suichi thought. _It has a strange design. He can't use it like a two-handed sword because the handle is too long but as a one-handed sword the overall structure is too heavy and unbalanced. He can increase his speed and accuracy with that half-grip..._ Suichi had used a difficult technique to instantly transmit himself to another point while leaving behind his own aura, concentrated down into its basic elemental structure. In his case, an ice sculpture. While Kinden hacked away at the broken fake, Suichi rested on the couch and gathered his inner strength to resupply his aura.

"HRAAAAAAAHHH!!!" Kinden roared, spinning and slashing with amazing verve but little intellect. What will the result of this foolish battle be? Most likely....

* * *

Bousekirensa: Spinning Chain  
Kasui: Spike  
Hateshinairensa: Endless Chain


	65. Shin versus Torsic

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

It was nothing but intense back and forth from the start of the fight. Torsic advanced heavily with his sword swinging in wide, powerful arcs while Shin blocked and deflected in his lazy one-hand style. When the forces shifted Shin would cut and stab at Torsic's chest and throat while the bandit ran around trying to block impossibly powerful attacks. The balance of power was severely tipped in Shin's favor, up until now.

"You're strong" Torsic admitted with his sadistic grin "but I've heard you don't even have a shikai!"

"Really?" Shin said, contacting the blades and making a huge push to force Torsic away. "Where'd you hear that?"

"Around" Torsic growled. He kicked a wooden chair up into the air and then made a rotating mid-air kick to send the projectile Shin's way. Shin slowly extended his sword forward so it would hit the chair, and the wood was blasted apart from the soft contact with the malicious blade.

_Should you spoil his fun now?_ Shikei asked.

_Not quite yet_ Shin answered. _I'm eager for an actual fight here. Let him release first._

"You're really pissing me off" Torsic said through his teeth. He kicked up an entire long table, keeping it perfectly level in the air despite how unbalanced it was from where his kick was planted, and then jumped up to plant his foot on the edge and push the table along. Shin was more apathetic than usually. He sliced the table apart in one amazingly quick, fluid motion, ending with his sword in its sheathe and his arms crossed while two huge halves of wood flew past him.

"**Bad move**" Torsic said from behind. Shin's apathy left him in an instant. Now he was shocked. Torsic was on one half of the table, legs crossed and sword laid flat in his lap. Time seemed to be going extremely slow as the table moved through the thick air, but in reality Torsic's flash step and motions within it were so quick that Shin's eyes could barely see them clearly. Everything was a speedy blur to him, even his own flash-speed movements. "You're predictable, Shin! That's why you shouldn't have that name!"

"Eh?" Shin grunted. Torsic began swinging his sword, but Shin saw the air around it move much slower than the air around even his hair. His sword existed separately in this speed from his body. Shin's sword was a part of him and moved at the same speed, allowing him to block the first attack. Then Torsic came in close and threw a short knee to Shin's face. It hit on the forehead and Shin felt his body start to fly away from the impact, but before he was blown away he swung his sword at Torsic's hand.

Now normal times resumed. The table crashed into the wall and blew apart into even smaller splinters and chunks. Torsic landed with his grin eider and eyes even more arrogant than before. Shin landed in a skid along the floor and stopped with a crash against a stone column built out of the wall to hold up the rafters. The room rattled with his impact.

"Ow" Shin said lethargically. "That kinda hurt...I hope it doesn't bruise."

"Don't be so cocky" Torsic said. He slouched his back and lowered his head toward Shin across the room. "Your brain must be seriously rattled by now. I'm surprised you can even stay conscious after a hit like that!"

"And I'm surprised" Shin began "that your hand hasn't started hurting yet." Torsic was curious. His lips curled inward at his confusion and his brows were raised. Then he looked down at the hand that gripped his sword. It was cut, right through the skin to the handle it held, right between the ring and middle-finger knuckles. Only when Torsic saw his grave wound did he register the intense sting and drop his blade down.

"HAAAAAAAAA!" Torsic shouted, his wide mouth flying open. "My hand! You bastard! My haaaand! What kind of swordsman cuts another swordsman's hand!?"

"A good one" Shin said. He flash-stepped forward, jumping as he did, and reappeared in Torsic's slow world form the corner of Torsic's eyes. He returned the previous blow with a flying-knee to Torsic's forehead. It would have been his temple, but Torsic turned at just the right moment and was blown back into the wall just like Shin. Shin then kicked Torsic's sword up and kicked it back at its owner with the same leg. All motions of his opponent executed with much more style, grace and power. Shin's strategy was working.

_You're being generous_ Shikei said, obviously amused at Shin's mimicry. _You could kill him with a nasty look, you know._

_Could I?_ Shin asked, remembering his recently formed new technique. _Satsugyoushi hasn't been tested on a single target yet. If I concentrate that much power into such a small point...yeah, I probably could kill him like that. But **that wouldn't be fun**, and if I'm going to overthrow an entire region's military I need a good warm up._

_Cheeky jackass_ Shikei chided. _Be more arrogant, why don't you?_

"Oh you son of a bitch" Torsic growled. He came from the settling dust with his eyes shining through the darkness his ratty hair threw onto his face, and his toothy grin was blazing even brighter. "I'm gonna enjoy hacking you apart!" Torsic took his sword in his good hand and set the blunt edge onto his shoulder. Then he raised his arm up so his sword draped down his back and touched at his rear. Despite the damage he managed to make a fist with his right hand, the one that was cut, and raised that arm across his chest. His right fist was in front of his left shoulder, his sword was curled over his body, and his legs were set into the ground.

"Here it comes, eh?" Shin said. He took his sword in a two-handed, serious grip and prepared for the worst. "His shikai..."

"Rampaging forces that flatten the woods," Torsic summoned, "come out and chop down this world full of fools! _**SKOGMORDER!**_" Torsic threw his arm forward and let the energy build around his sword. When it snapped to a stop so did the energy, and Shin observed the vicious new form that he would have to fight!

* * *

Eight long ax-spike blades extending from a long metal shaft. The sword itself hadn't extended very far, but its sharpness had exponentially increased. The eight blades extended out as crescent ax blades from out of the shaft, four on each side that got shorter and sharper as they approached the end of the hilt where the handguard used to be. The traditional color scheme of black and metallic silver stood out as well. The flat edge of the shaft was black while the outside edges of the blades were silver. The were like reverse scythe blades. Shin just had to grin at that observation.

_Shall we show him despair?_ Shikei asked, eager to rip apart another foolhardy warrior.

"I want to see how long" Shin began "I can fight him with just a sword."

"Muttering to yourself?" Torsic mocked. "Or are you trying to convince your sword to release itself? Begging before your own inner spirit!? What a fool you are, Shin! I will take your name and raise it to a new level of awe in this world!"

"Shut up" Shin lowed "and come here. I bet your insides are dying to meet my sword's icy-hot metal!"

"I'll kill you!" Torsic shouted. He jumped in the air with his devious weapon raised overhead in his left hand. Then he came crashing down hard into Shin's guard. Shin barely blocked the attack, as his sword slipped between the two longest blades. Their tips came down dangerously close to his shoulders. Torsic was smiling. He pressed down hard and flipped away, swinging his sword across as he left to try and catch Shin's blade between the ax-points of his own released sword.

"That's odd" Shin said. "I'm sure I had it right. It was going to block the longest tip of his sword with my sword, then swing it down and cut his chest from below...huh. I wonder what went wrong."

"Don't try to figure it out" Torsic demanded. "My sword has killed hundreds of men before! None of them ever understood its ability until it was too late!"

"Well" Shin said "at least they figured it out. It isn't technically a big secret if some half-witted warrior can dissect a sword's ability during a fight."

"Are you mocking me?" Torsic asked honestly. "Whatever!" he growled. "You won't get the chance to understand anything once I rake off your ass of a head!" Torsic started running now. He kept his sword off to the side while keeping away his injured hand by hiding it in his pocket. Shin planned his offensive rather than his defense and ran forward as well. Once he saw that Torsic was within range to swing, Shin flashed forward and cut Torsic's right arm near the elbow. He was aiming for the more crucial nerves and joints so his arm would be totally disabled, but instead carved a deep thin slice into his forearm muscle.

"GAH!" Torsic shouted in pain.

"What?" Shin said. He stopped his flash in mid-air and landed with assistance of his off hand. "I could swear my aiming was right that time. He's moving my sword somehow! Is that his ability?"

_It's not that vague_ Shikei said _but roughly, that seems to be his ability._

"I need to start swinging harder" Shin said. He took his sword in both hands, facing the blade forward, and rushed in. Just as he predicted, Torsic swung his sword around hard to block. A huge gust of wind came from the space between the blades and dragged Shin down to the ground. Once both of them were stopped Torsic followed his sword through and swung down from overhead. Shin blocked with both hands steady on his blade and again felt the dangerous presence of the blades as his sword stopped on the shaft between them.

"Swing as hard as you want!" Torsic offered with his evil smile. "It won't make a damn difference!" Torsic wound his sword back up over his head and swung down hard. Shin concentrated all of his might on blocking the extended blades rather than the black shaft.

He missed and got stabbed in his left bicep. Shin glared at the wound, then at Torsic who was still grinning menacingly at Shin's falter. Torsic yanked his sword forward, turning Shin's mere scrape into a bleeding gash that sent the mighty shinigami reeling forward in pain.

_Well_ Shin began _now my left arm is numb and useless. This is great._ Shin gripped his sword tightly in his right hand and looked up. Torsic was still setting his sword up for another attack, as the weight of swinging it with only one arm was throwing him off. Shin didn't care. He flew in and stabbed Torsic straight through the gut. Then he kicked his foot onto his chest and pushed Torsic away to get his sword free again.

"GHI!" Torsic exclaimed in pain. Shin rushed in yet again, losing no time, and made an attack at Torsic's wrist. Without any hands he would either have to yield or come up with some brilliant new way of wielding a sword on the spot. Shin swung straight down at Torsic's wrist, the bandit froze in terror, and Shin's sword hit at the corner of the metal shaft and the lowest, sharpest blade of Torsic's weapon. Shin scowled openly before pulling away, finding it difficult to take his sword with him.

"So that's it" Shin lowed. "The space between the blades acts as a vacuum-"

"NO!" Torsic shouted. "You're not allowed to know it without dying!!!" Torsic came back in and swung horizontally. Shin blocked with the tip of his sword, shifting to the side knowing where the blades would stab once the blade was stopped. He was unharmed.

"-that sucks in an enemy's sword" Shin finished from his interrupted statement. Torsic still had a slight advantage as his sword was constructed to fight against thinner blades. The eight blade-spikes were positioned along shaft so that a sword like Shin's wouldn't be able to keep them from reaching the wielder's flesh. Then the vacuum would aid in slicing apart a man's muscular structure from his skeleton with a swift withdrawal of the blade. Now Shin understood how it worked and began to work around it. He leaned into his stab and pushed the blade away. Torsic swung again. Shin rolled under it and came up from his crouch with a stab that reached through Torsic's gut and came out his upper back.

"Hgg-!" Torsic grunted. His diaphragm was pierced, disabling his ability to breath. Shin continued his attack regardless, as did Torsic. Both true berserk warriors fit to wear the title of Kenpachi, but in the end only one would walk away with it...and their life.

* * *

_Release_ Shikei demanded. _Show this fool the futility of fighting off death._

_Look in his eyes_ Shin replied. _He's not even fighting anymore. He's just swinging that tool of his around like he's blind, trying to hit me with nothing but rage._

"HAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!" Torsic roared. His casual, confident demeanor was shattered, and in its place was a terrible coursing madness that forced him to live past his own limits. His spirit pressure took over and began moving his lungs in place of the bleeding muscle below. His energy forced his heart to pump at twice its normal speed. It was all or nothing, a true berserk. Shin, however, was staying as calm as he could in his frantic dodging.

"That's right" Shin said, stepping over a broken chair, "I have an environment to use." Shin slid under a table and kicked it up. Torsic tore it apart, then spun around and hacked the rest of it to tiny pieces, thinking Shin was continuing to mimic his previous techniques. Shin stayed on the floor and made for the thrones carved from the wide wooden wall at the far end of the hall. Torsic followed after him with his sword dragging behind him.

"DIE SHIN!" Torsic demanded. "DIE, **DIE AND LEAVE THE WORLD IN PEACE!!!**" Torsic kicked countless small objects Shin's way, trying desperately to throw the king off his set path. Shin blocked them simply, batting them away with the flat edge of his sword and dodging the more dangerous objects when he could. After so much dodging and leaning, Shin decided to initiate his new attack. He leaned ahrd to his right and threw himself off his feet, spun around in the air, then hit the ground in another spin that took out the thick wooden legs of the shorter, elegant table in front of him. Still spinning, Shin brought his knees together and sheathed his sword. He shot up straight with his legs slightly parted and sword high in the air. The table was thrown straight up to the ceiling in a motion too quick for the white-eyed Torsic to detect.

"There is always death" Shin said. He jumped up, out of Torsic's vision, but it didn't stop Torsic from jumping forward and blowing apart the center throne with a single swing. He tried to move his right arm, but anything below the elbow was totally dysfunctional. His breathing was halted by the flooding blood in his mouth and he could feel the hot, deadly embrace of the end coming around him.

He saw death descend from above. Shin was standing upside down amidst a black mist of unknown spirit pressure that pushed **up**, glowering down at Torsic from the ceiling on top of the table he had thrown. "Nothing can evade death. Not you or I. But I am death, so I get some degree of lenience from it for now."

"But" Torsic began in a bloody sob, "I'm famous! I'm feared! They call me the 'Knight of the Blackwoods'! I control two entire villages out of nothing but fear! I'm a perfect warrior! I deserve it more than you!!!"

"Really?" Shin asked from up above. He lifted his pressure and let everything drop down, then he sped himself up with a quick burst of pressure to meet Torsic's teary eyes and scowling frown with his own stone-cold glaring face. "You know, now that there's so much hype with this name, I don't think I deserve it either." Torsic was shocked, so much so that he opened his eyes wide and stared death in the face.

_Looks like I wasn't needed_ Shikei said with a hollow sigh. _Perhaps the next opponent will be just challenging enough for you..._

"**Satsugyoushi!**" Shin growled. His eyes turned pure black with crackling white in the shape of laughing skulls. A lightning bolt of sheer pressure blasted out from his eyes and into Torsic's soul. He could feel his own spiritual pressure starting to numb and decay under the absolute terrifying pressure of Shin's deadly glare. He was seconds from death, he could feel it, and the cold washing of peace started to set in from his own slowing heart.

"**RED ARROW!**" some mysterious, regal voice called. A slicing rush of air came from the other end of the hall and a huge lance of fire blasted through Torsic's chest. The lance nearly hit Shin as well, but Torsic's half-dead body soaked it up nicely. Then, with his trademarked arrogant grin and slanting eyebrows, Torsic fell forward and died. His sword hit the ground and returned to its normal state. Shin was appalled at first, then furious to know who interrupted his honorable murder.

It was a man in a regal red dressing like the men of the town, a brown ponytail fluttering behind his head, and a huge spiritually resonating **arm-mounted Crossbow.** "Your plan has been thwarted...Shin Kenpachi!"

"Who the hell...!?" Shin exclaimed. "Who are you?"

_Kill him and find out!_ Shikei demanded.

_All you talk about is death!_ Shin shouted mentally, gritting his teeth at the sword in his hand. _Shut up for a while!!!_Skogmorder: Norwegian for 'Forest Killer'

* * *


	66. Suichi versus Kinden

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Kinden was panting heavily, the icy air stinging and burning his throat. Suichi was lying back on a couch across the room, his presence still hidden by the blind-side of Kinden's own single-mindedness. His bastard sword was speckled with tiny flakes of snow and ice that had frozen into its metal structure. This was not Suichi's doing, just the biting deadly cold making itself known to the berserk swordsman.

"Damn you, assassin" Kinden growled with a raspy voice. "You have evaded me well! I can't say I'm unimpressed, being that you are such a powerful warrior, but I never expected you to curse my own sword just to gain an advantage! Pretty sneaky, Suichi!"

"I'm over here" Suichi called, lounging back on the couch. Kinden's eyes glared angrily. He started slowly turning around and when he saw the snow-covered floor around Suichi he pouted his lips and began spitting words.

"HOW'D YOU DO THAAAAAT!?" he shouted. Suichi sighed and kicked himself onto the floor, landing in a very low crouch with his right hand on the floor to balance his body and his left hand up over his head with the chain wrapped menacingly around his arm. He raised his head up and glared at Kinden from across the room, the straightened himself into a stand and pointed his left arm and hand forward while his right hand came up to his chest in an open palm.

"Lead me to the mercenary captain" Suichi demanded "or face an unparalleled demise."

"HA!" Kinden laughed. "Even if I wanted you to kill him, which I do, but don't tell anyone that, I would never betray the trust of the lord of this sacred villa!"

"You're an idiot" Suichi bluntly said.

"WHAT!?" Kinden shouted. "Why you, I'm going to remember that!!!" Kinden swung his sword forward, swirling his energy all around, preparing for a release. Suichi's combat instincts came out at once and he threw his chain out in its loose, whip form. It sailed through the air and stabbed at Kinden's face. The guard dodged and Suichi yanked the chain back and down. The chain came back and hit the edge of the sword, wrapping metal around metal and gripping Kinden's blade tight.

"Now I'll just get rid of that" Suichi said, grabbing his chain with both hands. He pulled hard, but Kinden's determined grip wouldn't allow his sword to budge an inch away. "Come on! Disarm!"

"I don't think so!" Kinden said. He made a long straining grunt while he dug his feet into the slippery, snow and ice covered floor and used both his hands, one in a half-grip, to swing his sword up and over his head, crashing it into the ground behind him. Suichi's chain reached its maximum tension and ripped through his hands.

"Hrr!" Suichi grunted. His hands were cut from the frozen metal ripping through them at such speed. _That's right. I'm in just as much danger as Kinden is. While my body is immune to the cold that I created Haganerensa isn't. It's still a metal chain and can freeze to my skin..._

"Got it" Suichi said. He made his chain limp, disengaged its release and let the whole thing drag back into the shape of a short blade which he sheathed in the scabbard behind his waist. Then he clapped his hands together twice and crouched down to put his palms to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Kinden asked. The chill in the room suddenly lifted and a normal temperature was attained. The ice melted so quickly that all the wood was severely warped and some of the stones cracked under the pressure of instantaneous climate change. All the ice and snow congregated around Suichi and sank into his skin, making him look like a living ice sculpture, translucent and smooth.

"A contingency spell" Suichi began "that I came up with after training under cover in a kido academy far to the north. I honed most of my kido skills while on that job and haven't forgotten or gotten rid of a single one! Can you determine what your own aura is?" Suichi's question puzzled simple Kinden.

"Aura?" Kinden asked. "As in my personality? My projection of my character? Surely, my aura is classified as 'MAN' with big, bold letters!"

"I can see from here" Suichi said "that yours is 'Combat', so you were about half right."

"Combat?" Kinden asked.

"If you don't know what combat is" Suichi began "I feel sad for the citizens of this town under your care."

"I know what combat is!" Kinden shouted. "I'm the captain of the guard! This prestigious little hamlet of Xierd Leek was founded as a safe haven from bandits and roaming vigilantes, a place where noble and upright people can live without fear of war or the terror of wild monsters like Hollow! It is my own sworn duty to protect all those who dwell in this town with my very life!!!"

"My aura is the element of 'Ice'" Suichi said, ignoring Kinden's spiritual speech. "It attributes to my cold-hearted profession, my moral abandon when I'm on the job. I feel no regret or remorse killing any man from any angle, so long as I get paid. That chilling sense of self I have is what powers my kido magic, my **assassin's heart** is what pumps my frozen blood through my body! You aura is that of combat, meaning you can't use or keep up with kido like any other man can. You can just sit back and watch while men like me, who are proficient in kido, tear the lives of the average people apart!"

"What...?" Kinden said in shock. _So...this man is really here to kill the people? He wants to kill off the mercenaries so he and his bandit hoards can invade! What a terrible assassin he is!_ "You bastard! I won't let you get away with this! HAAAAAH!!!" Kinden started running forward with his sword held tight in its half-grip. He made a daring, powerful swing for Suichi's neck and saw that the blade had connected.

"_**Fuyuhada**_" Suichi said, finally naming this curious skill of his. The sword that hit his neck did nothing but, staying impacted on the shining surface of his ice-covered skin. Kinden tried to pull away, but claws of ice came crawling form Suichi's neck and froze the blade to his icy armor. "Anything that touches me will get a **deadly touch of winter.**" Kinden was frightened. This strange magic was something he had never seen before in his life, and now he had to fight a man who claims to have mastered it to protect the lives of the innocent people!

* * *

"Get off!" Kinden ordered. He finally pulled away from the still Suichi and slammed his blade to the ground to shatter the ice that bound it. The metal of his blade clacked within the handle, prompting Kinden to take a grave notice of the status his sword was in. The constant shifting in temperature was taking its toll as well, and Kinden could see the wearing marks forming on the tip of his blade. Soon his sword would begin to crack and then it would break, unless he could manage to avoid anymore contact with Suichi's strange magical barrier.

_I need to plan_ Kinden thought, retreating from the frozen Suichi. _I can't just chop away at him. Even if my sword could escape in time to avoid getting trapped in his icy grip, it won't do any damage! If only I could melt that strange armor of his off, I could perhaps find a weak spot and attack him there!_ Suichi, meanwhile, could barely move at all to keep from compromising the fragility of his light-blue skin.

_He's lost_ Suichi told himself. _This technique was designed for Imperial Guard duty. It has no weak spots. If he had a fire aura and access to some more dangerous kido he could break my armor, but then I would get to move more. Right now I need to trick him into touching me with his skin. He'll freeze instantly and then I can shatter him into pieces._ In the silence of their planning the wood continued to creak violently and some pieces broke apart. Suichi listened well and form his plan of attack. Simultaneously, Kinden took in the noise and planned on using it to his advantage.

"I may have to get serious" Kinden said "and release my sword to defeat you."

"It'd only be fair" Suichi said. "I've already used my shikai, why wouldn't you do it too?"

"I don't know" Kinden said. "HEY! Don't distract me with questions! I'm going to blast through that armor of yours, then I'll kill you!"

"If you say so" Suichi apathetically said. He brought his arms up and crossed them at his chest. The sticky properties of his ice made his kido armor fused his arms together with his chest. Kinden rose his sword high over his head, gripping hard with his right hand and keeping the half-grip of his left hand loose and relaxed. He took a stomping step forward and swung his sword hard into the floor. Splintered wood and flooring shrapnel shot up into the air. Kinden yanked his body forward with his sword as a lever and found a particularly large piece of wood to shoulder into.

"Ugh!" Suichi grunted, his face wincing with pain very slowly. The wood hit right above his crossed arms right between his pecs. Kinden reeled forward and slammed his fist into the wood, punching Suichi indirectly.

_Damn!_ Suichi thought as he felt the soft pain. _I didn't count on him being this smart! That's the trouble with combat-type shinigami, they learn how to overcome their disadvantages quickly and aren't above tricky tactics!_ The punch wasn't hard, not through the armor, but the fact that Suichi felt it was worrying. There were pieces of furniture and other ornamental things on the wall that would easily crush Suichi's unguarded bones if thrown hard enough. It would only be a matter of time until his armor was destroyed and his body was vulnerable.

_I've got him now!_ Kinden thought loudly. _He's vulnerable to wood!_ At his astute observation the guard captain took his sword back in his grip and ran over to the wall where the majority of ornamental shields and decorative weapons were hung. He thrust his sword deep into the wood and wrenched a huge slab of warped lumber out of the stone framing of the wall. Suichi was openly grimacing and decided to attack rather than defend against an undefendable. His armor cracked and broke off at all his important joints for moving and he began running with his arms crossed in an X in front of his face.

_One attack_ Suichi thought _is all I need to land._

"Die, assassin!" Kinden shouted. He pushed the wood toward Suichi, who ran around it and dodged, then he swung at Suichi with his sword. Again the tip got stuck on the ice, but this time it was stuck in the palm of Suichi's hand. With a grin Suichi grabbed the blade and squeezed, hastening the freezing process. A sharp, pointed block of ice quickly formed in the shape of a lovely, ice-blue peony.

"Whatever I touch" Suichi reminded Kinden "gets a lethal dose of **WINTER CHILL!!!**" Suichi reached out while Kinden leaned as far back as he could. The only thing within Suichi's reach now was Kinden's beard, so he simply touched it with the tips of his fingers and the hairs froze solid. Frost worked its way up his beard and a numbing chill stung at his chin.

"Grrr!" Kinden growled. He abandoned his life-guarding defense and made a kick. Instinctively, but some miricle of blind accuracy, Kinden hit right where Suichi's armor was cracked and delivered a shock of startling pain through Suichi's knee. Suichi stopped for just a moment and loosened his grip on the sword just enough for the ice to break.

"No!" Suichi exclaimed. Kinden wrenched his sword out of Suichi's grip and looked down at him with a glaring grin. "Shi-!" Suichi began, but was unable to finish. Kinden took his sword to Suichi's protected throat and lunged forward in a long jump. Suichi was pushed across the room and into the opposite wall. His armor was cracked and steam from the ice hissed out from the bare spot that was his entire head and upper chest. "I underestimated him...I seem to do that a lot..."

* * *

"Looks like my options are dried up" Suichi said as he staggered up, leaning against the wall. Kinden started rushing in with his sword drawn at his side. Suichi decided to make the best of what was left of his armor and loosened all his joints for maximum movement. He leaped over the first swing and made a kick for Kinden's face. The old man nimbly jumped back with his sword dragging across the rippled wood. He dug the sword into the wood again and launched splinters of it into the air. Suichi skid to a stop with several pieces of wood hitting his body. Kinden dropped his sword and punched and kicked each piece of wood until it broke apart. Then he back-flipped, taking his sword back into his hands, and watched the cracks form into solid white dents in the ice.

"Dammit" Suichi sighed. "This isn't getting me anywhere!" Suichi drew out his blade and attempted to release it, but Kinden was swiftly upon him with his blade. Suichi remembered the wall behind him and jumped high onto it, sticking to the warped wood with his icy feet.

"Now, Coil endlessly, _Haganerensa_!" Suichi quickly said. His sword was released into his right hand and he jumped off the wall, leaving behind some of the ice from the soles of his feet. He landed just as Kinden rushed in, took his chain in both hands, and stopped a head-slicing slash right above his skull. The pressure of the sword was great. He tightened the chain and pushed the sword away with a bounce. Kinden's leg lifted up by an inch off the floor. Suichi noticed and took advantage of his off-balance by stabbing with the spike of his chain. He connected and shattered Kinden's breastplate in an instant.

"What!?" Kinden shouted.

"The rocks are all cracked" Suichi began, "the wood is all warped, even your sword is showing wear from the cold. Did you think your armor was immune to that kind of climate shift?"

"Yes!" Kinden said in utter surprise. The weight of his sword dragged him down. He started falling backwards, an advantage Suichi took by connecting a punch with Kinden's hairy chest. The hair and some of the skin stuck to Suichi's ice as he withdrew his fist. "YAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Kinden roared in pain. He could feel hot blood coming form his freezing cold wounds. Suichi retreated as Kinden made a final sweeping strike with his blade just before contacting the floor with his back.

"That was lucky for me" Suichi said, breathing hard. He clutched his hand and melted the ice where the skin and hair was stuck. "I think I'm just about done with this armor, though. It was useful to a point...but all the water in my body has either perspired and frozen into the suit or has just plain frozen inside me. I'm nearly dead as it is..." Suichi crossed his arms and crunched his abs as Kinden rose up to his feet once again, wondering what his magical adversary was up to now.

"RAAAAAAAAAGHH!!!!!!" Suichi roared. He shot his arms out and chest up, and his armor exploded in a mystifying cloud of white snowy mist. With the wave of his hand the collective ice shrapnel was thrown onto the wall, creating a clear wall of ice that encased long scrolls and pearl-handled spears that were hung so carefully in the dangerously splintered wood. Suichi's skin was blue all over in blotted patches. Most of it was pale and tender looking. The skin on his forehead, particularly the area around his major veins, had broken and he was now bleeding a small crown of blood.

"Shall we continue?" Suichi asked, raising up his chained right hand and opening the palm towards Kinden. "I've still got enough life in me to use my shikai."

"Very well" Kinden said, "so do I!"

_Here it comes_ Suichi thought. _If you have any tricks you want to show me, Haganerensa, I'd be glad to see them._ Kinden's stance wasn't markedly different. He stood with his sword held in both hands as much as they would both hold, squaring his legs against Suichi and pointing his blade at his face.

"Impossible Grip!" Kinden shouted. He stepped forward and made a theatric swing, which an off-white and gray-bordered aura followed. "The weight of a true man's heart!" Another step, another swing, and now he stepped in a short circle patter while spinning his blade overhead. "Swing Forth! _**DREIHANDER!!!**_" With his incantation haiku over, he stood in his stance, his right leg forward and left leg squared off to the side. The sword had lengthened and grown wide, becoming seemingly impossibly heavy for a single-hand grip or in Suichi's case any sort of grip. The handle was much longer as well, this time so long that it required a third hand to hold properly. The blade pointed forward, directly at Suichi, with Kinden's right hand gripping just below the long, broad silver-studded metal guard and his left gripping near the pommel end of the hilt.

"Now we shall test true steel against steel!" Kinden growled.

"I guess we will" Suichi said. He too a pose, keeping his right hand forward with fingers pointed at Kinden, head down to the level of his hand, left hand drawn back and fingers curled, legs spread apart and set parallel to his arms. _I'm seriously screwed unless you decide to help me for once!_ Suichi thought to his partner, the spirit in his sword.

* * *

Fuyuhada: Winter Skin  
Dreihander: German for 'Three-Handed Sword'.


	67. Shin versus Jayce

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The smoking cannon was lowered. Shin looked down at the slaughtered body that he failed to kill with dismay, then he looked up at Torsic's true killer with his soft, well-hidden rage.

"Who the hell are you?" Shin demanded.

"I" the young regent began "am **Jayce Myoa**, Regent of the Xierd Leek province and the mayor of the town. I have been appointed under the direct order of the emperor himself, and have sworn myself to rule over this land with the same sincerity and equality that my gracious lord intends to rule over the world with!"

"Oh" Shin said, "so you're his bitch boy?"

"No no no" Jayce corrected politely. "I'm a certified ruler! I'm like an emperor, but with much less power and only within this regio-Wait, DON'T CONFUSE ME! Why are you here in my main hall? Are you trying to assassinate me to provoke my lord!?"

"I'm looking for someone" Shin said "so I can kill him. You should know so I'll ask you: where's the mercenary captain?"

"That man?" Jayce asked. "I'm not sure where he went. He was going to check on his prized soldier, a man he **keeps sealed in a steel box,** but he has yet to reappear."

"Damn" Shin cursed. He repositioned his sword in front of him, the sharp edge glaring down Jayce, and took in a breath. "Well, killing you may be interesting. I've never gotten to fight someone with a range-only weapon before. This should be good practice for me."

"A challenge" Jayce said, pulling back the string of his crossbow. "You are a tenacious Death God, aren't you?"

"Actually" Shin began. He flash stepped over and reappeared in mid-step right next to Jayce. "I prefer the term 'shinigami'." Shin swung hard. Jayce recognized the danger and blocked with the metal bow of his crossbow shikai. Shin stepped away and then back in as Jayce spun around to engage Shin in close combat. Shin swung again, this time low and near the hip. Jayce blocked again, but Shin stepped in and pressed his sword hard into Jayce's defense. He positioned the pommel straight up and made an uppercut-slash which Jayce leaped away from, unable to defend. He landed and watched some hair from his head flutter softly in front of his eyes. Just as one strand passed through his vision Shin flashed ahead again and kicked Jayce square in the face.

"Guah!" Jayce screamed. He went tumbling across the floor for a bit, then grabbed it with his hands and pressed himself into the air where Shin was waiting with his blade drawn back. _This man is incredibly fast! He isn't even using his shikai, either!_ Jayce threw up his arm and the crossbow began to tighten its spiritual string. "**Blue Arrow!**" Jayce shouted. A flash of blue appeared on the loading slot of the crossbow and the weapon prepared to fire.

_Dodge it!_ Shikei shouted. Shin obliged and flipped backwards to disengage his flight, landing just in time. Jayce fired a lance of blue which shot out as a straight beam of light and hit the high wall. Shin looked at the area where the attack hit and saw a huge hole which soon filled itself with light. He was startled.

"That's the power of my weapon!" Jayce shouted. "The _**Vervunvuurmond**_ can fire seven different types of arrows, all of them with a different devastating effect! You wisely dodged my unstoppable Blue arrow, and you already know the effects of my read arrow, but I'd like to see you survive the entire spectrum of pain that this weapon can create!" Shin saw that Jayce had twisted his face into a very villainous sneer, but after only a few seconds of his muscles twitching he sighed and let his face sink back into its natural, good-willed position. "Aah!" he sighed, "what trouble! I can't be very intimidating for long, it hurts my face!"

"When were you intimidating?" Shin asked. Jayce gasped and hopped back at the accusation.

"Why" Jayce began in an appalled tone, "how dare you, sir? I'm trying to be as un-gentlemanly as I can be to suit you, yet you walk over my efforts so callously with your harsh words. What an incredibly rude man you are! I doubt even my acting abilities will allow me to match such coldheartedness!"

"Then don't!" Shin shouted. Jayce became more serious at Shin's tone and waited to see what the shinigami had to say. Shin spun his sword around rapidly, stopping it with his left hand on the hilt and his right hand hear the tip of the blade, clutching carefully. "I'm not here to meet new people or make any new friends. I'm here to rid a grateful world of a troop of whores who sell their blades for petty cash! Act however you want, fight however you want, it really doesn't matter, because as soon as that merc captain shows his ugly-ass face I'm going to throw you into a cold ditch to die and work on killing him instead!"

_What a fearsome man_ Jayce thought. _The sheer tenacity and confidence with which he speaks provokes so much fear in me! He is not a man that will sway to the breeze of negotiation, he is a true warrior who understands no language but the sword! **My worst nightmare!!!** I can't even fight that well!!!_

"Reaping time..." Shin lowed. Jayce felt the cold surge of evil energy in Shin and prepared his weapon for another attack. The moment Shin released, the battle would begin again, and it would most likely sway in the shinigami's direction. "**SHIKEI!!!**" Shin's sword erupted in a blast of black energy, and then the cloud of death dissolved to reveal his scythe. "Now, come, **meet the void head on!**"

* * *

"**Green Arrow!**" Jayce called. A new beam of light appeared on the wound string of the crossbow. The shaft of the magical arrow was warped and slithering like a snake, while the tip had four points around a central needle. Shin rushed in and Jayce fired. While in the air, Shin slashed his scythe and changed his position. The arrow went straight past him.

"You're not shooting a target" Shin said. "I'm trying to kill you!"

_He hit_ Shikei said. Shin snapped to attention and looked at his leg. The arrow had coiled itself around his ankle and was preparing to bite. Shin swiped his scythe at the arrow and blew it into a clinging green mist. He stopped his flight and landed, trying to shake the green fog off his foot.

"What is this?" Shin asked. The fog started nipping at his skin and it began burning him. "Gah! Is this poison?"

"That's correct" Jayce said, summoning another green arrow to his weapon. "These arrows carry a neural poison that causes an intense rush of pain through the entire body! Even if the arrows don't bite, the residue they leave behind can seep in through the pores of the skin and-"

"You talk to much" Shin said. He flash-stepped and slammed his forehead into Jayce's. "Just try to kill me already." Jayce stuttered with pain, but then punched his weapon into Shin's side. The warrior showed absolutely no sign of moving. His eyes still flickered with a black fire of killing drive, one which nearly paralyzed Jayce before he could attack. He pushed through the fear and fired the arrow, but Shin was gone and the arrow flew into a table and dissolved the wood.

"Almost" Shin said. Jayce saw him above and noticed the slender black shaft of his scythe. Shin was standing on the blunt curve of his blade, avoiding the attack by using his scythe itself as a pole to vault up into the air. "If I weren't a good fighter I'd be dead by now."

"I don't get it" Jayce said, quickly backing away. "Are you mocking me or just complimenting yourself?"

"Both" Shin said. He kicked off of his scythe, falling straight down, and caught the grip on his scythe as he landed. Jayce was in full motion to equip another magical arrow, but Shin's quick feet propelled him into the close-combat range once gain. Shin started with a backhand slap with his right hand as his hips spun his torso sharply to the right. His scythe was equipped in his left hand, the arm fully extended and straight with the shaft, and the very end of his handle laying across his back. He was going to harvest Jayce's head straight off with a body-rotating slash, but the regent would have none of it.

"**Orange Arrow**" he lowed. His weapon equipped itself with a glowing orange arrow. He brought the crossbow up and blocked Shin's attack with a sizzling, blazing-hot blade that was equipped to his bow. "A super-hot metal blade! Not for firing, but for close-range combat!"

"Huh" Shin grunted. He snapped his wrist and spun his scythe around, reversing it's position and attacked again. Now his right hand was up on the handle and his left hand was low, bot powering the curved blade into Jayce's quick defense. "And here I thought you were a long-range only fighter. This makes it all the more fun!" Shin pushed Jayce's arm, lowering his guard, and then made a hard slash with just his left hand, letting his right arm fly out to the side. The attack threw Jayce off his guard and his feet and he went through the air, quickly regaining his balance. He aimed and fired the shot, which Shin spun away form with a grin. He rested the wrists of either hand on the handle of his scythe and propped it up on his shoulders. Then he lowered his face and gave a deadly sneer to Jayce, who nearly froze up.

"**Indigo Arrow**" Jayce summoned in a whisper. Shin jumped straight at Jayce, spinning as he went, and let his blade scrape across the ground to kick up sparks.

"I've worked on this for a while" Shin said "so I hope it will go over well." Jayce was frightened. He fired his arrow and hit Shin on the face, but a blast of black fire erupted from his eyes broke the arrow into a puff of smoke. "If not, I guess I'll just have to use you to retrain my style!"

"Orange Arrow!" Jayce quickly summoned. Shin flipped onto his feet and began swinging his scythe from hand to hand like a staff of some kind. The blade was always sweeping at Jayce, the shaft moving it in wide circular patterns. Shin switched it simply across his torso when the blade came down, then he made a horizontal slash and let the scythe take an extra swing as the shaft hooked itself around his wrist. Then he grabbed it and switched again, adding a new complex piece to his repetitious pattern.

"Huhuhuhu..." Shin lowed with laughter. He had driven Jayce into a corner and was still steadily building his attacking speed. "You can't move can you? You can't see any holes in my defense, right? You're screwed!" Jayce grunted and brought his off-hand to reinforce his crossbow and steady his block. The scythe was in its switching position when he did that, so Shin took the scythe back into both hands and made a huge slash from right to left. He stepped in with a lunge and twisted his waist to get as much force into the blow as he could. **"Weakling!**" he growled. He made a full follow through with his swing. The 360 degree arc he made in his attack formed a thin, black line in the air which dissolved and blasted a huge gust of wind out from a perfect circle around his feet. Once Jayce was safely situated inside the ruined wooden remains of his own throne, Shin glared up and lowered his scythe with a low thud to his shoulder. His right hand drifted into his pocket out of apathy.

"**Saishuu Serifu"** Shin said. "That's the style I developed specifically for my weapon. No one else can execute it, no one else can imitate it. It is an absolutefighting style. All offense, all defense, perfectly mobile and virtually unpredictable. It perfectly represents the unstoppable force that backs my natural power so much." Jayce coughed slightly and got himself out of the rubble. His crossbow was already equipped with a violet arrow that seemed to vibrate and move around rapidly while in the slender load of the bow. "It's the perfect style...**for cutting off heads.**" Shin has just gotten serious, busting out a new, amazing fighting style on the political-minded Jayce. Young Jayce was courageously staring at Shin, disregarding the trickle of blood coming from his head, chest, arms, legs and the painful pull in his shoulders.

_I've lost_ Jyace said to himself. _Regardless of what will happen, just looking into those eyes, they tell me that I've lost..._"Looks like you're doing well" Guy lowed. He stood in the darkness of some forbidden dungeon beneath the mayoral palace, a huge cage of solid steel walls in front of him. He drew out his sword and with a flash of light it vanished in his hands. Then he raised his arms up and shook the floor. "You haven't seen the sun in so many days, have you?" A terrible, monstrous growling came from the cage as the steel walls began to shake. Charms and seals, blessed with binding magic, started to wrinkle and peel from the walls that trapped the beast.

* * *

"**RRRGH!!**" it shouted, banging against its prison. The box shook violently, nearly tipping from one direction to another. Guy held out his open hand and somehow quelled his monster. With just a flick of his wrist the cage unlocked. A medley of chains and metallic locks clicked and the door began to swing open with a terrible hiss of stagnant air escaping and mingling with the air outside. A certain indistinguishable madness overtook the damp, dark room.

"Are you ready" Guy said "to see the sun again?" The monster let out a breathy growl and began exiting its cage. It's feet fell with heavy stomps that shook its metal prison, signaling its great weight. The box was built just barely higher than Guy himself but as the beast's shadow approached it was slouched down low with its head hung down. Chains were wrapped and coiled around the monster's body. With a snap of his fingers, Guy released those binds and his monster was free.

"Good" Guy said as the monster before him lowed. "You are still under my total control! My sword is still working on you! I didn't expect such a madman to be so susceptible to a simple hypnotism backed by the controlling nature of my sword. Now you're the most powerful maniac in my army!"

"...**huuuuuuuhhhhh...**" it breathed. Guy stepped back and turned to the stairs, then looked at his monster and pointed.

"Those" Guy said "are your steps to freedom. Destroy the intruding bastards in all-black garb and I will release you from the shackles that bind you!" The thing began walking forward, crossing a dim stream of light. He was easily two feet taller than Guy, measuring just under nine feet tall. His arms were long and slender, with curves of muscle rather than usual bulges and bumps that a shinigami would have. He wore no top but his pants were of tattered Seireitei shinigami variety, frayed like flames at the bottom. His sandals were broken and only the straps remained around his dirty, torn socks. He had no sword around his waist but the rope to hold a sheathe was present.

"**Grrrrrr.....**" he growled, raising his head. Though the shadows covered his growling frame the contours of his face were apparent. He had a sharply-cut jawline, a very masculine face, and nose with a flat bridge and narrow nostrils. His eyes were only half-open but the glaring white from them made two bright orbs, and his wide mouth was only open to show his white, jagged teeth. He lowered his head to breath and five thin spikes of hair dropped from his head all the way down to his chin. The rest of his hair stayed in place, cut short to the top of his scalp. Then, with breath in his belly, he leaned back and gave a terrifying, hollow roar that shook the rafters even above the dungeon floor.

"**RUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!**" Guy Rose grinned with an evil sneer as he watched this monstrous shinigami of his display his might. His ultimate weapon had been unleashed at last, the man in the box was freed.

* * *

Vervenvuurmond (Dutch): Color Cannon  
Saishu Serifuu: Last Words


	68. The Rain of Madness Falls

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Kinden's sword began kicking up torrential wind. The remaining fragile wood was peeled off from the stone of the wall underneath. His sword swung over his head at increasing velocity, his hands switching from place to place to distribute the maximum amount of force needed to get such an object at such speeds.

"How's this, assassin!?" Kinden shouted over the roar his sword made as it passed through the air.

"It's sloppy" Suichi said under his barely audible breath. "It's the same as his previous sword in terms of pressure density, it's just bigger. All he did was make it heavier and longer and wider...all offense and no strategy. I at least have some force behind my sword to counter his sterngth." Suichi took his sword in its summoning grip and jumped up. The wind pushed his weak frame slightly off the mark he aimed for but in the end he was still standing vertically on the wall with a chain around his arm. "_Haganerensa_!"

"The chain again" Kinden said. "How utterly weak!" Kinden sudden;y switched his grip and stabled his hands. His right hand was high up on the blade while his left hand gripped at the pommel.

_This'll be big_ Suichi thought.

"KRYARGHKA!!!!" Kinden shouted. He brought his huge, heavy sword down and stopped the wind. Once the blade sliced straight through the floor and lodged itself into the stone foundation of the study the wind exploded back out, a huge jet of it, straight at Suichi. Suichi dodged it in anticipation and jumped onto one of the weak, creaking rafters. All the force, temperate and spiritual, had taken its collective toll on the wood that held the room together, and now the rafters all started to splinter and break in two. The ceiling began to cave in as well. Suichi looked on grimly while Kinden just smiled and wrenched his blade back out of the floor and onto his shoulder.

"Well well" Kinden said, watching the bricks fall from up above. Suichi jumped back down and hit the ground ready to attack. He took a hard stomp forward with his left foot and carried his arm through to shoot the chain straight at Kinden. With the sword on his shoulder Kinden couldn't bring the metal down to block in time, so he used the handle and caught the tip of the chain just between his two hands. "It looks like things are going in my favor."

"Wrap!" Suichi commanded. The chain extended even further and wrapped itself around Kinden's blade. Now Suichi controlled the middle region of the handle, effectively destroying whatever centric gravity control Kinden had before.

"Arg!" Kinden growled. "I didn't know you could do that!"

"It's a chain" Suichi said flatly. "It's supposed to do things like that." The sarcasm was a bit too much for Suichi, as he started coughing and crouched down with an arm wrapped around his gut. _Damn. I'm bleeding internally. Now I remember why I don't use Fuyuhada more often, it kills me! All my organs are working at quadruple capacity and I'm hemorrhaging!_

"Enough of this foolishness!" Kinden shouted. He yanked his sword back, pulling the unguarded Suichi in with it. Suichi managed to jump up and used the force of Kinden's pull to propel himself into the air. Kinden began twisting his whole body around to get his sword to move. Once Suichi saw the blade was close enough he spun in the air, wrapping his loose chain around him, and landed on the wide blunt edge of the blade. "HEH!? You can do that too!?"

"I can do lots of things" Suichi weakly said. He pulled on his chain and reeled his shoulder back as well, catching the rest of the chain with his body and increasing the force of his pull. Suichi flew forward, right into the unguarded area of Kinden's range, and delivered a powerful flying kick to his jaw. _He's dazed now_ Suichi thought. _I can attack all I want!_ Suichi landed on the floor finally and began his attack. His left arm was kept reaching to the back of his head so the chain didn't tangle itself on his chest while still staying wrapped around Kinden's handle.

"Now what?" Kinden lowed with a slacked jaw. Suichi let a slow, measured breath out that turned to visible vapor in the air and moved his right palm slowly forward. He placed it gently on Kinden's gut, then pulled it away and threw his knee into the armor on Kinden's belly. It shattered from forces unknown and exposed Kinden to further pain. Suichi brought his leg back down and slammed his right elbow into Kinden's gut. Then he pumped his fist up and hit directly under Kinden's ribcage. He pushed up and delivered a powerful, blood-spittle inducing uppercut to Kinden's diaphragm. Kinden made a sickly, painful grunt as he began to quickly black out. Suichi jumped away, keeping his chain wrapped around the sword just in case.

"That" Suichi said as he panted heavily "was a pain to do! I sprained my wrist punching his weirdly hard gut." Kinden fell with a thud to the floor and broke even more of the wooden paneling. The floor started to give way just as the ceiling, Kinden's weighty body creaking and breaking the wood. Then, Suichi looked up and saw a large chunk of the ceiling coming down on top of Kinden's body. "Well, that'll kill him, probably. I guess I've won..." Suichi watched as the rafters broke in the path of the boulder of stone and clay that came barreling towards Kinden's body. Time seemed to slow down, as if some predestined event was waiting to take place, and finally a hissing growl came into Suichi's mind.

_If you don't save him_ thought a voice inside Suichi's head, _Shin might scold you..._

_Like I care_ Suichi thought back _about what Shin says. He's a warrior and I'm an assassin. I've committed plenty of dishonorable---_

_Save him!_ The voice demanded. _What is the worst he could do in this state?_ Suichi realized his sword had a point. Kinden was a warrior above being a guard, obvious by the fact that even unconscious he clutched his sword firmly in his right hand. Suichi grimaced at himself, took in a deep breath, and pulled Kinden out of harm's way. The tumbling rock crashed straight through the floor and went into the dungeons below, crashing loudly as the rest of the room caved in and fell apart.

* * *

Kinden awoke with a biting pain at his gut and pushed himself up to his feet. His sword had returned to its normal form in his unconsciousness, and he sheathed it at his waist as he stood up.

"How strange" Kinden began. "All I can remember from that fight is getting hit in the gut. Then I passed out. These damn organs of mine are always holding me back, always crapping out in my old age! I'm sick of it! If I knew how to live without them I'd get rid of them outright!" Kinden now noticed that he was just outside the previous room, inside the long hallway where the dead bodies were piled and meshed together. The terrible stink of death clouded Kinden's senses and the old man nearly passed straight out when it all hit him. "UGH! What horror! Anyway, where is that assassin? Did he die in there?"

"Nope" Suichi groaned. Kinden turned around with shock to see Suichi laying on the floor with his arms out. "I'm right here. Unfortunately I can't move, so forgive me for not pulling you further when I rescued you...but..."

"Hold on" Kinden said. He marched over to Suichi and leaned in over him. Suichi's face was stained with blood and his teeth had a fresh coat of glistening red on them, apparently from coughing up blood. "You tried to save me? In such a state as yours!?"

"It seemed like a good idea" Suichi said "just before I started doing it. I completely regret it now though..." Suichi faded just barely out of consciousness, but kept himself awake out of a natural reflex he honed as an assassin. It was incredibly easy, he knew, for one assassin to kill another if the victim was sleeping.

"You" Kinden began with great disbelief "saved me from death? Me?...My head hurts..." Kinden rubbed his skull and ran a cold finger over the scars that decorated his bald top. The memories of his battles came flooding back, and each of them invoked the same feeling: honor! "You saved me!" Kinden shouted in admiration. "Mr. Assassin, Mr. Suichi, I thank you form the depths of my heart! You are a true warrior!"

"Eh?" Suichi grunted in confusion. Even that drained what little energy he had and made him cough a little. "What kind of warrior dignity is that exactly?"

"I am a respected citizen" Kinden said with a fist proudly on his chest "with a large array of local commendations. It would be a travesty for myself and my family if I were to die. I have far too many attachments in this world to truly be a warrior, and yet I face men like you as one day after day. I am a fool when it comes to fighting, but this is the first time I am able to see it from the other side, the first time I have lost and was able to see what all those dangerous men talked about in their dying breaths."

"Good for you" Suichi said with a cough. "I don't mean to impose...but I'm dying quite rapidly here. If you can get me to a cool, dry place with access to some fresh warm water I'll agree that you and I are even." Kinden scooped Suichi up in his arms and began running down the hall.

"Not good enough" Kinden said. "I need to make sure I understand everything about why I lost and how I can prevent further loss in the future! Mr. Assassin, please impart me with osm eof your wisdom on this 'kido' you use so that I may better understand it in combat!"

"Whatever" Suichi agreed. "As long as my skin doesn't fall off my bone I'll do whatever you want to call it even." And with that agreement a truce was formed, and Suichi was removed from the rest of the combat in the palace while he recovered in the servant's quarter's pantry.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the throne room...

"RRRREEYAH!!!" Shin roared. He spun his scythe over his head in a full circle, the center of the spin near the end of the shaft. Jayce jumped away and fired his loaded shot, the Violet Arrow. With a snap of the bow a blast of the violet arrows came roaring out. Twenty of them at least, all aimed in Shin's direction. Shin brought his scythe down and made a full-circle slash that blasted the arrows apart in the air. He looked up and saw Jayce coming in with his bow armed with a flaming Red Arrow.

"Haven't you had" Shin asked "enough of this foolishness yet? Come on!" Jayce fired the arrow straight at Shin's head, but the sweeping flash of black metal blew that bolt of flames into a wisp of nothing. "**Face Death!!!**"

_He's terrifying!_ Jayce exclaimed internally. _I'll need to use some more serious firepower to bring him down._ Jayce stayed as distant as he could while Shin came in, scythe spinning in front of him in his _Saishuu Serifu _style that Jayce still hadn't figured out. "**Yellow Arrow!**" Jayce called. Shin stopped and swapped his scythe in mid-motion behind his back, then gripped it in its normal position, waiting to see what this new arrow would do.

_Avoid eye contact_ Shin thought. _Most likely, it's some kind of flash-bang projectile, and if I stare directly at it I'll be blinded and vulnerable._

_Of course_ Shikei said sarcastically. _Come now. Being blind won't stop you from blocking or killing him. It will just delay you slightly._

_Maybe_ Shin admitted. Jayce fired the arrow at Shin. It was bright, but not glaring or blindingly so. Shin dodged it with a sideways-flip through the air, then slammed the end of his scythe shaft into the ground while landing in a crouch. The arrow was lodged in the ground, spreading a hot, burning yellow through everything around it. _More poison?_ Shin assumed. He jumped away form it and into another Violet Arrow storm. He swept away the magical bolts with a powerful slash of his scythe. Jayce loaded a Red Arrow now, hoping the frantic action had worn Shin out, but he was gravely mistaken. The huge blast of pain to his abdomen confirmed that.

"Gaa-hah!" Jayce grunted. Shin had mercifully shoved the blunt edge of his scythe's blade into Jayce's stomach, holding his weapon like a spear.

"I still haven't seen Indigo" Shin said. "Isn't that a color on your rainbow of pain?"

"Monster" Jayce groaned. He pushed away from Shin's scythe and loaded up a blazing hot orange arrow. "I don't know what you're up to, but rest assured, as Regent Superior of Xierd Leek, I shall defend my honor and the honor of the people who trust me!" Shin took a step back, spinning his scythe over his his hands and wrists, then finally stopped it with his left arm higher than his right and the blade down near his feet facing forward. Both his hands faced the same way, thumbs pointing inward, and his face was covered at a distance by his left hand.

"Who cares" Shin said "about the people. I just want to fight." Such callous words, spoken so lightly to a man whose life was devoted entirely to the people.

"You're a bastard" Jayce said in a low tone. Shin raised his brows at his sudden, quiet outburst. Jayce covered his mouth and began frantically waving his arms in denial. "No. No, I apologize. Murderer or not, that was rude of me! You must have had a father at some point, so a bastard is not even a proper term. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"You're obnoxiously nice" Shin said. He was instantly too close for Jayce's comfort once again. "Nice guys die fast." Shin had stepped out of his flash-step with only one foot on the ground. The other was wound up straight behind him which he used to deliver a huge kick to Jayce's chest. Jayce flew into a wall, then bounced off as Shin made a leaping dash with his scythe following in his hands like a shadow. Jayce was upside-down, heading for the ground at the time, but still raised up his weapon to block. Shin attacked with a downward, horizontal swipe. Jayce blocked it and then pushed against Shin's scythe, forcing himself back to a straight-standing position in the air. His legs kicked out freely and he brought Shin back into his sights.

Point blank range with a seathing-hot blade loaded in a ballistic crossbow. Shin saw death in all directions. Jayce's face was warped with an honest, villainous furrow and frown. He looked honestly serious about killing Shin, an emotion that Shin enthusiastically embraced and smiled at with a thin grin and narrow eyes. Everything seemed well in terms of Shin dying for just a flash moment, then the air exploded

"**HHHHRRRRRRYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"**

The air became heavy, too heavy, and far too loud with some indistinguishable spiritual pressure. Shin felt burning, freezing, sharp, dull, light, heavy, dry, wet, stinging, soothing; every aura he knew and didn't know, all bombarding him at once. It turned his grin into a growling sneer as he was dropped quickly to the ground. He landed on his toes and his hands, like a growling animal, with his scythe tight in his fist.

_How obnoxious_ Shikei said. _Some inconsiderate monster has interrupted your parting moments of this world. Are you going to let that go unpunished?_

_Talk later!_ Shin roared internally. He looked over and saw Jayce face-deep in a cracking crater of stone. He was out cold, the pressure knocking the very sense out of his head. Shin struggled to stand up, forgetting his own pressure for just a moment. When he remembered he countered the dense, sepia-toned air with his own black-and-white field. His hair began floating in its short, tangled spikes from the clashing forces in the air, making his head look like it had a timid, black fire raging on top of it.

"Who is that?" Shin asked. From behind the thrones, behind the wall out of a slender dark corner, a smiling man with sharp features came out with his hands folded behind his back.

"Well well" that man said. "What have we here? Such an infamous man as you, wreaking such purposeless havoc on a small town like Xierd Leek. And all this effort for a wayward bastard child, I hear."

"You" Shin said in a booming, hollow roar from his pressure "must be the mercenary captain. Yeah. All that red on your hands and the stains all over your ugly face make that clear. No, that runt is Suichi's job. I just want to kill you." Shin pointed Shikei at him, unaware that a giant loomed just around the corner.

"Ah yes" Guy said. He squared his shoulders with Shin's and looked at him down the straight bridge of his nose. A leg came stomping out form the darkness, followed by the body of a man two full feet taller than the six-something Guy. Shin looked with a curious worry behind Guy as that slenderly built giant slouched as if in pain behind the captain. "Somehow, I thought you were a deeper man, but in reality you just abhor 'professional' killing."

"Exactly" Shin agreed, getting his scythe into proper position. "I hate it when people think killing can be a profession."

"What?" Guy nasally groaned. "That doesn't make sense. Of course it's a profession! Anything can be made a profession!" Guy shook off the unnecessary anger and pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked at Shin with an arrogant, evil sneer. "I suppose you deserve to hear this, as you've even killed poor young Jayce to get my attention. I know just where that orphan boy is...and now, **so do you.**"

The man behind Guy with a head of short, almost woolen blood-red hair with five equal spikes drooping over his sad-looking face, arced its back and threw its head straight back, breathing heavily. The pressure lifted, and Shin lifted his. That man, extremely tall and menacing looking with a torso full of expertly carved and toned muscles, lowered his head like it was barely attached and lurched forward in no particular direction, flexing his fingers and raising his forearms up while the rest of his body fell forward. His feet stopped him from falling over completely, making him look even more manic than he sounded when he opened his mouth and let out a terrible, madness inducing roar!

"**RRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!**"

_Rei?_ Shin thought, enduring the pressure while getting pushed away by the wind. _This thing...how is this a helpless orphan? **He's a monster!!!**_


	69. A Man

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

_Let us consider this_ Shikei politely began. _Rei instructed you to 'rescue' this child, correct?_

_That's the gist of it_ Shin answered.

_Under what meaning_ Shikei asked _does the word 'rescue' take in such a case? Are we to convince this creature that we mean to take it away to a better place...or are we to put it out of its misery?_

_Don't think crazy things_ Shin chided. _Rei isn't the type to enforce euthanasia. She wants this guy back alive, whatever the cost is. The only reason she asked me is because I can actually bring him an inch within his life and carry him back myself...Although, I doubt it'll be that simple._

"Attack" Guy commanded. The huge man's eyes went from glowing, animosity-filled orbs to tightly furrowed glaring daggers. He charged forward on stomping feet with his arms out to his sides, huffing and grunting with each step. Shin set himself up to defend but noticed the body at his side. Jayce was still out of it and vulnerable to collateral damage if Shin wasn't careful. Of course, against such an opponent, Shin couldn't be too careful. He picked Jayce's body up with his foot and gently spin-kicked him away across the room. As he landed he felt a heavy, hot air at his back and rose his scythe up, blocking a tremendous hand chop from his huge opponent with the blunt edge of his scythe.

"Damn" Shin grunted. He waited for the pressure to leave from the chop and then pushed up. The monster made another chop and hit the ground, splitting and blowing it apart. Shin landed from his escape and started spinning his scythe all around his body. "_Saishuu Serifu_..." Shin said. The monster came sprinting once more from the cloud of dust and made a short kick at Shin. Shin stepped to the side and swiped at his leg, but even with his huge size the man was able to nimbly dodge by carrying his kick through and spinning through the air, landing squared up against Shin.

"Didn't expect that" Guy said "did you? Such a monstrous man, moving so quickly as if weight were just a word."

"It's how you throw your weight" Shin said "that makes it dangerous." The monster glowered down with a flashing snarl and raised up his leg to deliver a chopping ax kick. Shin prepared his scythe to lop that leg off if it came down at him, holding it sideways with the blade pointed up. The leg came down with unpredicted swiftness and Shin instinctively dodged, standing now on the horizontal wall and flourishing his scythe a little before getting it back to its basic position. He glared over at Guy, the mercenary captain, who was sitting at the central throne with a smug grin on his face.

"Bastard..." he lowed. The monster came stomping forward with its arm drawn far back. It punched the wall to bits but missed Shin, who jumped straight for Guy with his scythe leaving a silver trail of cut air behind it. Guy looked lazily up from his comfortable position and grinned.

"Is that all you can do?" Guy asked. A bright flash later he and Shin had switched places. Shin's weapon was sheathed and a sword was held at his throat. Guy stood up beside him and the monster stood in the dead center of the room, glaring through his fearfully black face with shining, white eyes. "It's nothing but rush and rush with you. You don't even consider strategy, do you? You just berserk form here to there, hoping your foolish weapon hits something important."

"Something like that" Shin admitted, showing no fear or even concern for the sword poised to slice his head off. "I do plan when I fight. The plans are just really simple, that's all."

"Is that really all?" Guy asked, aiming his sword up a bit higher. Shin's masterful reflexes kicked in and he slid out from under the sword just as Guy chopped it into the wood of the throne. Shin gripped his sword tight and swung it out of its scabbard. Guy's shinigami garb was sliced but his body was unharmed. Shin advanced with his sword in both hands, an obvious signal of threat, and engaged. He swung hard for Guy's shoulder but the captain was able to block it near the hand guard of his own sword. Shin slid his sword down along the flat metal and brought it back in for a stab. Guy leaped away as Shin stabbed and continued to advance. Shin's swings were fast and fierce, never-ending chaotic clashes of steely might that echoed bright streams of light in the air.

"Is there a plan here?" Shin asked. "Who knows, right?" Shin finally got Guy pressed against the wall, swung his sword so hard that Guy's flew out to his side and then stepped in with his body still in mid-roatation to deliver a gut-smashing kick! Guy coughed most of his spit out mixed with some blood. "Fragile little thing, aren't we?" Guy got mad. He held his sword in a reverse grip and brought it in front of his eyes. Shin retreated in a flash step into the hall and shielded his eyes with his own sword.

**HHHHHIIIIIIIAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!** the monster-man shouted. Shin looked over and saw the behemoth charging him once again with its hands balled together. Shin dodged by running between its legs and jumped up onto its back, realizing just how much taller two feet made him.

"You're being annoying, kid" Shin said. He took his sword and hit him in his soft red hair with the blunt edge. The pressure of death flowed briefly through the monster and he swayed with his head down. Shin had hoped he was knocked out, but a moment later he threw his body back in a lean, throwing Shin to the ground.

**GUUUAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!**

Again the intense hail of dreadful, mad pressure dropped and Shin was stuck on the ground. The air turned orange and the colors faded into a burnt color as everything started to shake. Even Guy had trouble holding his ground and took his sword in both hands.

_What the hell!?_ Guy thought. _He's broken my hold! How did he do that so suddenly?_

_This feels different_ Shin thought. _It's a lot more intense, but it's much less dangerous...Shikei, did you do something to his head?_

_I merely looked at it_ Shikei admitted. Finally the pressure lifted, along with the screaming, and Shin back-flipped to safety with his sword held ready to release. _It was a disaster. I doubt I could have done anything if I wanted to or not..._

"How perfect" Shin lowed.

* * *

Now the bind was broken and Guy began to panic His previously loyal monster of a man been freed of his control and stood breathing deeply through his his mouth which was covered with three of his hair spikes like evil fangs. The man started regaining control of his body and looked around the room with his back straight and shoulders rolled back. Shin observed carefully and began planning on his actions. Then, finally, it spoke...

"Ah~!" he sang. "Ee~!" it continued. Shin's eyes went narrow and his mouth pursed to a single point in confusion. "Oo~! Eh~! Ohh~!"

_Is he stretching his vocal cords?_ Shikei asked.

"He's practicing his vowels...." Shin said. "Did he...forget to talk at some point?"

"The o~~cea~~n is re~~~d!" he sang once more. Guy snarled in anger while Shin just stood with his arms down and his mouth hanging open.

_No it isn't_ Shikei observed.

"HEY!" Shin shouted. The man turned to him with oddly gentle eyes and stomped around to face him. Shin saw now, with the shadows of menace lifted, that this man had the face of a child. Its features were deeply cut, as if his face had refined and toned muscles under his thin skin, and his jaw was sharply pointed at the chin. His nose curved down and came flatly in to his upper lip. His mouth was wide, not unlike a monster's, but his pale-blue eyes were tilted down in sadness and glazed over with an innocent wonderment.

"Who are you?" he asked in breathy, childish voice. "Are you death?" Shin became serious at last at his remark. Whatever this man was he had the apparent mind of a child in an uncontrolled state. He saw Shin in his tattered black robes with his sword that echoed loathing of life as a visage of unstoppable death, and Shin smiled.

"Something like that" Shin admitted.

"Okay" the man said, pointing to his face. "That's good, because I'm death too."

"Are you now?" Shin asked. "Well, death, where's your sword?"

"In here" he said, pointing to his chest. Shin tilted his head and tried to pull whatever innocent childish expression from the action there was to be obtained but the peaceful moment was interrupted by the tip of a sword piercing through the giant man's sternum. Shin scowled and the man's eyes widened in surprise.

"How could this be!?" Guy exclaimed from the man's back where he drove his sword through the other side. "How could my own sword have failed me!?" The man turned his head and looked over his shoulder out of the corner of his eye.

"Hello" he greeted. "Who are you?"

"Oi" Shin grunted. "He's got his sword in you."

"He does?" the man said in astonishment. He reached for the sword in his chest and **his hand passed straight through his flesh.** Shin took a few steps back and awed at the sight, still ready to release at the first notice of combat. The giant man grabbed the sword from within his own chest and pulled it out, as if his flesh were mud. No blood dropped from where the sword had cut and no signs of injury were detected as the man examined the sword by holding it up high. It barely fit in his hand so he tossed it away and Guy flash-stepped to catch it and position it in front of his eyes.

"Who was he?" the man asked Shin.

"Who are you?" Shin asked. He noticed the man became markedly confused to his question, raising his brows up and crouching down with his hands on his knees to think.

"...a person?" he answered.

"**Jin** then" Shin said. "I'll call you 'Jin' for the time being, until I get you back safely."

"Back where?" Jin asked.

"Take possession!" Guy announced. Jin jumped up to the ceiling and clung to the rafters like an insect. Shin was left staring at the blade of Guy Rose far apart from his position and angrily opened his eyes wide. "Haunting, _**Tounusumu Gyoushi!!!**_" A blinding, flashing light came from his sword and reached into Shin's eyes. He felt his soul being molded and manipulated, the deathly aura he had cultivated leaking out from his own eyes as a terrible clack ooze.

_BASTARD!!! _Shikei exclaimed. The effects of Guy's sword became instantly effective and Shin hit his knees to the ground, dropping his sword as it smoked with a painful steam...

* * *

"Well now" the hollow voice of a skull-faced phantom said, "this is a problem." Shikei, standing in its ethereal robes at the peak of Shin's own internal mountain of destruction, looked out upon the infinite landscape of Shin's soul. Beyond the newly added outcroppings of the stretching mountain was a field of swords, one of which stood out from the rest in its shikai form, that one that looked like a **giant, rest-colored steel paddle** which had a torn and tattered wrap of cloth at its pommel. The black sky began to crack and the shining black sun started to separate the clouds and let shine down rays of yellow light. The glare that reflected from the swords hit the ground and flowers grew. Terrible flowers with thick tangles of wiggling vines and wide-petaled sunflower petals on winding, twisting stalk.

"So that's his power, eh?" Shikei noted, drawing out a black scythe from inside its robes. It made a huff and brought one of its thick, bone-white hands up to its hood to pull it down over its skull face. "Taking an enemy's weapon to make them defenseless. He's a cruel one, that mercenary. However, it's all useless. I reversed the effects afflicting Jin with nothing but a tap. This is my world. **Only I decide what lives here**." Shikei flew from the top of the mountain like a shadow in the sky and dove down into the center of the field of flowers. The flowers all resonated with a certain earthly energy, all of them having a life of their own. The flowers were the sword's inner spirit itself!

Shikei spuns its scythe around above its head with whirring hums as the energy of death rippled out. Then he swung it with one hand and reaped the still growing heads off the entire crop of flowers in front of him. Once the stalks were cut open and began oozing with a rejuvenatory lifeblood Shikei opened its skull mouth and let the white orbs of power in its black eyes shine brightly out. A black cloud came hissing out of its mouth and, instead of regrowing the heads they lost, the flowers stalks simply withered and curled up into heaps of black death. Shikei took its scythe in one hand, holding it at its middle, and made a sliding step in with its feet still hidden under its fiery black robes.

"Work must be done" Shikei hissed. "Shin, fight on with your own power. **Kill him with your bare hands...**"

Back in the outside world Jin came crashing back down to his feet and shifted them apart, glaring at Guy the whole time. Guy sheathed his sword with a smug smile and looked across the floor at Shin, who was still doubled over from the shock of having part of his soul completely removed from his body.

_Shikei!_ Shin thought. _He's gone! I can't feel that familiar dread of constant death and uncertainty anymore! Shikei is...I understand..._ Shin got up and swayed in place. The blackness from his eyes had evaporated and turned to simple smoke which clouded around his face and then blew away as Shin let his _Satsu Gyoushi_ tip through the air. Guy dodged the pressure beam and crossed his arms at Shin. "How utterly sick of you..." Shin growled.

"What's the matter?" Guy asked. "Does it feel strange having a part of you torn away? Is your soul suddenly empty?" Shin wanted to make another snippy remark but the disturbing feeling had him pinned and he was forced down to his hands and knees.

"Death!" Jin shouted in alarm. He looked back at Guy, who was confidently smiling at the defeated Shin. Guy suddenly turned to Jin and forced him to retreat to the wall out of fear. "What have you done to my friend Death!?"

"The very same thing" Guy explained "that I did to you. Of course, with the swords you own, possessing them allowed me to control you as well. This man is different. He is in control of his own soul and can live without his sword, albeit pathetically. However, I can only possess one thing at a time, which is bothersome. So, I suppose now I will have to dirty my hands and kill one of you...I know!" Guy flash-stepped over to Shin and stomped on his head, planting his face into the stone floor. "I'll kill Shin Kenpachi first!"

"Again with the name?" Shin grunted, turning his head to the side. Guy repositioned his foot to pressed down on hits skull, leaving his neck exposed for his sword to cut. "Listen man, you want my name? At this point you're free to take it. But really...do you want to carry this kind of crap for your life?"

"I'm not an idiot" Guy said. "Having the title will obviously mean constant danger from stalking bandits with far too much ambition. But it will also mean fortune! Do you know the highest bounty available for your head?"

"I don't care" Shin said.

"Then don't mind" Guy said, drawing his sword up "if I take it all for myself!"

**RRRAAAAAAAGHHH!!!!!!** Jin roared. Guy looked to the side and received a flying shin-kick the length of his torso which sent him into and through the farthest wall. Rubble and dust fell onto Jayce's body, finally stirring him up from his stunned coma and opening his eyes. Jin knelt down to pick Shin up and set him on his feet. Shin coughed and nearly fell back, but Jin caught him with his giant hand and set him back up with a smile. Shin started laughing painfully. His bangs were hanging over his eyes but the white glare from them was able to leak out in thin streams of light.

"I'm never going to die" Shin joked to himself, "am I?"

"Of course not" Jin said. Shin turned to him and raised his bangs up with a tilt of his head. "You and I are Death! Death cannot die!"

"Damn straight" Shin agreed. "Why don't you finish up this fight for me Jin? Do you have a sword?"

"Yes" Jin said. "But, isn't he your kill? I wouldn't want to take something that isn't mine, like someone else's meal."

"I'm not gonna eat him" Shin said. "I just need to catch my breath here. I'll come back to fight soon. Until then keep him busy...**and make him regret everything in his pathetic life!**"

"Understood" Jin said. He stood up and stomped over to the hole in the wall, pushing his way through and making the hole bigger as he stepped out into the hall. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists, then opened his eyes and revealed his piercing, blood-red pupils and blue veins around the corners of his furrowed eyes. He took in a breath through his gritting teeth and began stomping through the halls, searching for the man who hurt his friend Death...

* * *

Jin: Man. Jin means, among other things, 'man'. It also means virtue, charity, humanity and benevolence, making the name a little ironic given his fighting nature.  
Tounusumu: Sword Steal Gaze


	70. Chasing a Rabbit

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Shikei had taken to the highest roost of his mountain of destruction to escape the quickly encroaching flowers of control.

"This is bad" Shikei said, hacking away at some of the taller and more bothersome plants. He looked out with his glowing orbs inside his empty sockets and saw the wide-spread disaster across the infinite plains. Mann's sword, a landmark for the center of Shin's combative mind, was covered completely in tangled vines and bright-yellow petals. The top of the ruined mountain was the only standing area of death in the entire land. "Even I can't fight everything off at my current power. However, without Shin's energy I can't release myself any further! There's no helping this..." Shikei's robe spread out over the peak of the mountain and became a crackling fire of blackness, leaving the phantom disrobed and standing in its nearly glowing bone-white skin with scythe in hand. "I just need to bide my time..."

Shin himself had taken to the floor in a relaxed, meditative position and passed out. His pupils were diluted with the stagnant liquids in his eye and became gray with off-white centers. His fingers were laced tightly together to form a ball in his lap and his head stayed only slightly hung down. He looked dead, but he still breathed. Jayce stirred up painfully from the rubble that coated him and finally managed to stumble up to his feet. His sword was already sheathed from when he could only move his arms and both his hands occupied space clutching at his throbbing head.

_My brain!_ Jayce thought painfully. _It is as if someone stepped into my head, tore apart the temple of my mind and then a vicious rain swept away everything that wasn't fastened to the floor! Agh, what was that terrible pressure? It certainly wasn't that shinigami Shin's. His was so much more blunt and depressing. This pressure was all over the place!_ Jayce walked a few steps forward and then saw Shin sitting in the middle of the floor. His first instinct was to run behind something and pray that he wasn't seen, so that's what he did.

_Did he see me?_ He asked. Jayce poked his head up just slightly above the still semi-standing piece of table he hid behind and looked over at the silent, stoic shinigami. Even the air around him seemed to be dead, which bode well enough for Jayce who was unprepared to face this terrifying man again so soon. _He seems out of it. Perhaps he was defeated while I was incapacitated?_ Jayce got out of his cover and walked over, trying to be as passive and non-hostile as he could lest he set off some kind of instinctual reflex deep within the warrior's mind. He was finally close enough and got a good look at Shin's face.

"He's gone!" Jayce said. "Guy Rose must have given him a thrashing. He's been stabbed in the chest and lost what seems to be a lot of blood. I nearly pity him.: Jayce sat down across from him and then found the black sword lying just a bit away. It seemed to be smoking with a dark vapor that came from within the metal itself. Jayce felt the need to retrieve it and place it near to its owner but as he drew close to it he felt his heart slow drastically. He staggered in pain and coughed out before falling back and clutching his chest while rolling on his side and gasping.

_Even unconscious_ Jayce thought, _he is a deadly man! _Jayce managed to crawl back up onto his hands and feet and looked across with fear at Shin. The darkness on Shin's brow tried to hide his face from Jayce's awing eyes but it just resolved to darken his eyebrows and emphasize how much bone-white was in his eyes. Jayce quickly scrambled onto his knees and humbled himself before his fearsome opponent. He took a pose similar to Shin's, folding his hands properly over each other in his lap and closing his eyes to concentrate.

_Perhaps if he sees me_ Jayce thought _mimicking him out of honor he would spare me. Or at least go easy on me. Shin Kenpachi...I lay my life to you upon your waking._ Meanwhile Shin's half-dead mind drifted off into some unknown extremities of his own subconscious without his soul and he became lost, even meditating inside the blackness of his own mind.

_Well_ Shin thought within his own thoughts, _I'm screwed. I forgot how to wake up again..._**"Kagome, Kagome...**" Jin hummed menacingly. He stomped through the halls with a heavy slouch in search of the enemy of death, Guy Rose, his former captor. He sang the whole way with a small, childish grin on his smooth adult face, the spikes of hair drooping down instead of hugging his skin like normal. "**...the bird in the cage...**" As Jin continued intermittently humming and singing Guy hid in the shadows behind a piece of tapestry, masking his presence with a basic kido spell he knew Jin wouldn't be able to see through.

* * *

_Damn that man_ Guy thought. _I can only possess one sword at a time! Now I have to get this runt into submission and drag him back to his box. The only problem is that body of his. He and I have similar elements, Earth, which **is the only thing that allows me to harm him** but at the expense of my own pressure field. If I miss a single swing I'll be at his mercy until I can muster up my energy again to run away! It's so annoying to deal with. I wish I could just remove the curse from that zombie's sword and put it back in this one's head!!!_

"**...when will you come out...?"** Jin sang with a nasty chuckle, finishing up the first verse. He reached inside his chest with his hand and seemed to scratch. He straightened up and looked at his surroundings. Long rugs hung all around him on the walls, perhaps hiding something valuable behind them, like more wall or his true target. Jin looked behind one and gave the empty space he found a long, hard glare. Then he let the fabric slide back off his wrist and moved across the floor to another one, singing in a low voice as he went. "In the evening of the dawn...what senseless lyrics, eh?" Jin didn't sing the second part, obviously. He was in fact talking directly with Guy, whom he knew was tailing him. Guy tensed up and increased the energy of his spell to totally hide himself down to even his body heat.

_Damn_ Guy thought. _Has he somehow found me out!?_

"It's only straight thinking" Jin said "that you would hide close to me. I'm less likely to look there, after all, but now I am looking for you nearby. So really, what is the point of you living if you can only think in such terms? Huh? Why don't you just go off and die on your own?" The calmness and lethargy with which he spoke only made Guy more nervous than before when his demented singing echoed in the halls. Jin took a long pose, not moving a single muscle and letting his teeth show from his slacked jaw, until he began walking once more across the hall and sang.

"**...the crane and turtle slipped."** He drew back the tapestry and smiled at the wall. Guy took his chance and tried to escape but Jin quickly turned around and lurched forward with a stretched arm to grab the very rug that hid him. Guy tried to think of a resourceful plan of escape, but no matter how he looked his sharp-nose was as good as broken, if he was lucky. He continued using his kido an waited. Jin ripped the curtain away and saw nothing. Guy retreated with the fluttering fabric and silently made his way behind the monster of a man to slice him up form behind with his sword.

"**Who stands right behind youuuuuu...." **Jin sang. Guy thought those lyrics were too well chosen and made an undetectable jump in the air. Jin reached slowly inside his chest and grabbed something hard with a metallic clank. **"NOW!?**" Jin spun around on his heel and brought his hand crashing down into the stone floor. Blocks and bits of stone blocks flew up in a plume of destruction that Guy avoided by canceling his kido to permit his flash-step. He was now staring down Jin with a blade in his hand, a **released blade** that came from within him.

A huge continuous chunk of metal, worn and spotted with stains and rough from the time of training incalculable, it resembled a huge deep-blue butcher knife with a slight curve at the tip, as if to make chopping up vegetables or meats in a kitchen all the more easier thanks to the rolling motion the curved edge would produce. The cutting edge seemed extremely dull upon a glance but the ground had been divided cleanly in half. Jin's smile had grown wide and wrinkled his otherwise innocent-looking face. His hair-spikes became jagged like bolts of lightning and hung out just in front of his face, seemingly afraid to touch him. He chuckled from his breast and shook with each low, diabolical laugh.

"Ah" Jin growled, "there you are. I found you! I found you! You're it now! **You're it! You're it!!!**" Jin's childish taunting didn't work in the monstrous voice he as using. Guy retreated three steps for every stomp that Jin made his way until Jin made a mad dash with his blade drawn back around his neck, ready for a disastrous body-cleaving swing.

* * *

"What was that?" Kinden asked.

"Something important" Suichi said. They were in a guest room with Suichi lying on the bed and Kinden leaning against the wall farthest from it, untrusting of the still awake assassin. "You can still fight, right? Maybe you should go look."

"I refuse" Kinden said. Suddenly the power grew much stronger and a huge blade went through the door, then a monstrous stomping retreated down the hall and more howling swings of a huge, metal blade were heard as some pitiful soul dodged the manic swings. Kinden's eyes were wide open with fear as he was right next to the door that exploded out. Suichi was looking on, rather unimpressed, and leaned his injured body up.

"You should probably stay here" Suichi said, changing his mind.

"Wait here" Kinden said, clutching his sword at his hip, "I'll go inspect. Promise me you won't leave without me seeing you out, alright? I can't have you wreaking even more havoc through the halls!"

"I got it" Suichi said. Kinden left and Suichi expertly flipped himself off the bed and onto the floor. He tightened his bandages and inspected his previously frozen body parts. Everything was alright once more. His skin was fully thawed and he was no longer in pain. In fact, he'd been like that for a while, but he humored Kinden with his constant explanations of kido and its use to fully heal himself while he could. "Now then, I just need to find Hoji and get out of here. Shin can handle the rest." Suichi went out into the hall and saw the damage. Most of the floor was ripped up and the walls had huge dents. Suichi squinted down the darkness where he heard a battle in the distance and retreated in the opposite direction.

_Shin works fast_ he thought.

"**HRGH! HRGH! HHAH! HAAH! HUGH! HRAAAGH!!!" **With shouting grunts like that Jin continued swiping and slicing at a seemingly impossible speed, all of his wild swings hitting right in front of him where Guy continued dodging. Guy jumped down onto the bastard butcher knife and stepped up onto Jin's wrist, delivering an overhead cut down into Jin's arm. Instead of simply passing through his skin like a heated blade through clay it sank in with a bloody noise and the wound started spurting blood. **"AAAAAHHHH!!!!!**"

"When Earth meets Earth" Guy explained "there is destruction. Our elements are the same, Jin, even if your is dampened by all the others!" Jin shook Guy off and kicked him while he was still in mid-air. Guy flew down the hall and went into a stone wall. He struggled to get out and saw the glaring, mad face of Jin rushing forward to tackle him. Guy dodged to the side and Jin went barreling through the wall, creating a huge cloud of dust and rubble as he went. "What a terrible waste of your power!"

"You there!" Kinden roared. He came up faster than Guy expected and aimed down his angled nose with his bastard sword. "Oh, it's you" Kinden said almost expectantly. "I apologize. I thought there was another raging Death God from lands away around here."

"There is" Guy said as he retreated down the hall. "He's in that wall!"

"Eh?" Kinden grunted, watching Guy leave. He foolishly turned his back on what he just assumed was a broken down wall and set his sword on his shoulder. Jin crawled out from the darkness with glowing eyes and snarled breathing. "_In_ the wall? Is such a thing really possible?" The growling behind him continued on for a few seconds before he became aware of it, and then he turned and saw it, the monster of a man that was Jin with the one evil blade clutched angrily in his unscathed right hand.

"**RAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!"** Jin roared. The sheer force of his roar and the pressure that coupled it sent Kinden to the ground. Jin started running chaotically down the hall, meandering and bumping into the walls with quick yelps of anger and Kinden quickly regained his consciousness from the shock of the floor.

"What an immense man!" Kinden thought. "He's half the size of an ordinary giant, I believe! He certainly didn't look that strong in terms of sheer muscularity, but god damn, he looked frightening! Should I pursue after all...?" Kinden pieced the puzzle together rather quickly, a giant butcher-knife wielding maniac chasing the battle-weary and fleeing Guy Rose, and realized that his assistance was truly unnecessary. He sheathed his sword and turned laxly around. "Well, Guy can deal with this on his own. After all, he has an army of world-renowned mercenaries and some kind of secret 'super-soldier' in reserve to aid him. He doesn't need an 'unlearned' old man like me slowing him down." Kinden started to chuckle and walked down the hall.

_Although _Kinden thought, _there is the stark possibility that that huge man was his super soldier gone berserk, in which case he is thoroughly screwed! _At that turn of thought Kinden opened his mouth fully and began laughing boisterously.

"BUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Serves the bastard right! BUAHAHAHAAAA!!!!"

Jin quickly caught up to Guy who was inadvertently catching up to the injured Suichi.

"I can still make it outside" Suichi told himself. He sensed danger form behind and jumped up high, turning in the air while drawing his sword. "Who is it?"

"What!?" Guy exclaimed. "Another one of them? Is he with that pathetic shinigami from before!?"

"**RAAAAAAWRR!!!!!"** Jin roared.

"What a lame roar!" Guy exclaimed.

"What in hell is that!?" Suichi shouted. Jin came up fast, huffing and jerking forward with each step. He swung down hard into the ground, right behind Guy, throwing him off his balance and his feet. Guy went saulting through the air until the toes of Jin's feet came up swiftly in a running punt that sent Guy straight up into the rafters. Suichi landed with a wince and observed the apparently one-sided fight. Guy was lodged in the ceiling, blood dripping from his mouth and eyes rolled back in sheer pain. He shuddered at the pain that coursed through him but dared not to move, as being up high had somewhat of an advantage against the manic warrior. Jin huffed and growled with his bangs all spiked until the blood came down and hit him on the head, the colors indistinguishable from each other.

"Eh?" Jin grunted. His hair straightened and clung to his face again and his eyes turned back to the cool blue from before. "What happened? Did I lose already? Death will be disappointed in meeeee..." Suichi stood calmly, observing the sharp change in behavior and making a stern mental note of it. Jin looked at the cut in his arm and brought it up to his mouth. He placed his lips over the wound and slobbered on it loudly. Suichi squinted curiously.

_I have no thoughts for this_ Suichi thought. Jin took his mouth away, dragging along several wet strings of spit as his arm drew away, and shook the spittle off. His wound was gone, all traces of it vanished with the spit. Not even a scar remained. Suichi was markedly impressed.

"Eeeew~" Jin whined, still shaking his arm. "Now my arm's all wet and stickyyyyy~"

"What the hell...!?" Suichi hushed unexpectedly. Jin's ears pricked up and he turned around to Suichi, leaning his head over his shoulder innocently.

"Oh?" Jin grunted. "Are you...**Death as well?"** Suichi became paralyzed. Something about this man's childish eyes drew him in and dragged him down into a deep, chaotic well. Suichi could tell just from a glance that this man was extremely dangerous, regardless of how he talked and how he seemed to look. A wise thought indeed...

* * *

Meanwhile, outside, Hoji took his penance for dishonoring himself by sitting cross-legged with his fists together in his lap atop the fountain in front of the mansion. A group of curious and daring townsfolk had gathered around to observe the constant noise and clatter from within the halls of the building, though some were there strictly to pick on Hoji. Namely the spoiled children who had never seen a true warrior before and enjoyed throwing things at him to test his balance.

"Hey baldy!" one child shouted, wielding a stick, "Come down from there, baldy! You're blinding us with your bald head!"

"Melon-head!" a little girl shouted.

"Now now" a parent of one of the children chided politely, "it isn't nice to mock strangers. Even if they are bald." Hoji had enough. He flash-stepped to the ground and stood glaring over the children and woman. When she turned she recoiled in shock to his sudden presence.

"I ain't bald..." Hoji growled. He turned around, grasped his pig-tail and Picked all three children up by the collars of their odd shirts with one hand. "**YOU SEE THIS!? IF I'M BALD, WHY DO I HAVE HAIR GROWING ON MY HEAD!? TCHEEEEEEEH!!!?????"**

"Calm down, sir!" the woman exclaimed. "They're just children! Don't kill them!!!"


	71. Shadows of our past Monsters

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Guy let himself stay set into the stone wall while he prepared his next move. Jin seemed to be conversing with Suichi in the long corridor. Kinden was nowhere in sight and his sword was still possessing Shin's deathly spirit, keeping him subdued and stunned.

_This is bad_ he thought. _Thankfully I know his weakness: he can only attack. He has poor hand-eye coordination and can't defend against a well-aimed attack and he doesn't understand kido to save his life. He's basically a runaway wagon loaded with swords and explosives, an utterly unpredictable bomb with a wick made of blood. Who knows when his ration will be overpowered by his instinct and he simply kills everything around him!?_ Guy dove down with his sword down and coursing with Earthly energy. _I'll finish this from up high! He's too simple to block an attack from this angle, even if he sees it coming!_

Unfortunately for Guy, Suichi saw the attack coming a mile away and stopped it with a quick dash on top of Jin's head and a clean swipe to the side. Guy landed easily on the wall which came crashing down from Jin's random sword swing. The madness came creeping up and shivered Jin's bangs into their primal, jagged shape. Suichi retreated a safe distance and released his sword, then attacked Guy once more.

"From what I can tell" Suichi began "you aren't a good guy. Jin is at least nice."

"Thank you" Jin said, not noticing Suichi's chain as it blazed past him to stab at the defending Guy.

"Damn!" Guy shouted. I can't keep up with this guy!" Jin raised up his leg just above the ground and kicked back behind him. Guy dodged easily. Jin then planted his toes on the floor and let his body fly backwards, using his toes as the only pivot in his body-twisting full-swing. His sword just barely scraped the sruface of the rock, nowhere near Guy, but both the floor and Guy's chest opened up and sprayed out their own contents into the air. Guy flew back, clutching his wound, and landed in a full retreat.

"No choice now" Guy said as he sprinted away. "If I kill the man I'm possessing at least I can take control of that freak again!"

"**HURAAAAAAAGH!!!!**" Jin roared. Suichi was downed to his knees, his pain coming back in a flash flood.

_What is this chaos?_ Suichi asked. The air stopped shaking when Jin was done roaring and he went stomping in a full run down the halls that were too narrow for him to move eloquently through. Suichi watched him go, trying to get a spark of his natural aura, but got nothing except a chaotic soft orange bouncing every which way, a pattern he had never seen or heard of before. _It's as if his own aura **just doesn't mix with him.** What could that mean?_ While Suichi thought, Jin thoughtlessly ran ahead with blade in hand.

"You won't hurt my friend Death!" Jin shouted. "No one can kill Death! Death is Death, therefore only suicide can kill him!!!" Jin sliced a wall into shards and ran through one room far too small for him to fit in. "Death wouldn't dare take his own life!" He kicked down and tore through another mostly-wood wall and stood in a wide open hall once more. "**He has too much PRIIIIIDE!!!**"

_He's mad!_ Guy ran full speed. Jin crashed through the wall and saw Guy retreating. He snarled and furrowed his brows, forcing his glowing orbs into more angled, degenerate slits of eyes. He kept his one blade tightly clutched in his hand and reached out with his fingers pointing in towards his chest. He slammed his hand through his skin, searched inside his own body for a moment and finally found it, **his other blade.** Identical to the first in every way, down to the bumps and creases and other imperfections that reflected his insane soul. Jin's hair folded up off his face and onto his head again as spiked frills that shook and rattled at the base of his neck. His breathing intensified and his energy started pouring outward. The walls started to melt and bleed. The ceiling caved and exploded into a spiraling, black sky above. Suichi joined the scene just in time to be assaulted by the full strength of Jin's mad aura.

"**HAAAH!!!**" Jin growled. Suichi was floored.

_What the hell...!? What is this???_Jayce and Shin were still deep in their respective meditations, Shin's being much deeper and closer to death than his previous opponent's. Within Jayce's mind he saw the landscape where he grew up as a child of wealth, a regal young man with the unruly ambition of leading an entire kingdom to peace. He stood, as himself from the present, observing his memories from an omniciesnt position atop a hill. He saw his child form dressed all in regal red and his sister in splendid light blue dresses. They were but children, barely over a hundred years old each, born into the nobility of their land outside the capital.

* * *

"Brother Jayce" his sister called, "come chase me!"

"Oh" young Jayce whined, "but you're so very fast! I can never catch you!"

"That is because" she said pompously "you are simply not strong enough in the chase! Don't you know? Any good police must first chase a criminal before apprehending them!"

"That is not what I aim to be" Jayce defended.

"Regardless" she said. "You must learn to run faster than anyone can outrun you, or you'll never be able to catch those who slip under the rules you put in place! You must be able to stay not within their step but two-steps ahead of them!"

"Then give me a head start" Jayce begged. "You know I can't keep up with you otherwise!"

"Fie!" she laughed. "You'll do just fine, brother Jayce!" She began running away, holding her arms straight out and leaping occasionally, while Jayce ran after at full speed. He was intent on catching her, even though she wasn't exerting herself half as much as he was, but his efforts were still in dire vain. His sister had already learned the art reserved for aristocratic women, the 'Flash Dance', a series of flash-step movements to confuse, distract or in extreme cases combat an opponent. She used this technique and vanished from Jayce's view. He stopped suddenly and turned fully around where he saw he trying to make an attack. She smiled and vanished again.

"You've danced around me" Jayce shouted "for the last time!" He prepared an unseen ball of energy, a spell in the making, and waited for her routine to end. She came out of the dance with her leg raised his for a face-kick but Jayce was prepared for her. He had in his hand a ball of force pulsing with all the colors of the rainbow and a victorious, regal grin on his face.

"_**Verven Uitbarsting!**_" he declared. He threw his hands out in front of his body where his sister came in with her kick and a huge, chaotic blast of seven-colored spiraling lasers ripped through the air and blew apart whatever they touched with a stunning force. His sister, however, was over his head, landed in her loafers on top of him and simply skipped back to the ground, kicking her brother in the ass once more to totally sink in his defeat.

"You're still slow" she said in a kind voice "but at least you're not afraid to use your magic against me. There was a time when you couldn't even do _that_, you know." Jayce didn't get up. He just sat down in the ground, wallowing in his own selfish pity. The real Jayce, who watched his memories form up high, looked terrified. Off in the distance was a moving darkness with two red-hot eyes that stampeded towards the unsuspecting children. Equipped with only his witless drive to change these terrible memories he ran full force ahead to intervene.

"Brother Jayce?" she asked, noticing his trembling body. "Are you alright?" She reached down a helping hand but had it swatted away by the intently angry young man.

"Get away!" the young Jayce exclaimed. He turned up with the look of a furious, beaten dog, snarling and glaring wide-eyes at his own sibling. She backed away in fear and started to tear up at his rage. He staggered back to his feet and struggled to form another of his magical attacks, but the energy was all gone from him in his first attempt. She tried to step forward to help him but he stumbled at her and then barked. "Stay back, damn you!"

"Oh!" she gasped. The darkness drew even closer. Jayce knew, even in his mind, there was nothing he could do to stop it, but he was determined to nonetheless. The darkness finally came and young Jayce looked upon it behind his sister in horror. She saw his expression and prepared to sincerely turn the same way but the grief came too suddenly. A gnashing swipe and a spray of blood, her fragile body was **cut in half** and her lifeless arms flew away as her upper body floated down to the hard ground.

"**Huhuhuhuhuuuu...**" the darkness laughed. Young Jayce quivered in fear while the real one smashed his fists to the ground in anger. He had let it happen and saw he grave results. The Hollow attack that shook his family and prompted them to separate from their homeland was a memory he had thought was hidden and sealed in the darkest parts of his mind, but now he had seen it in its complete form.

The monster Hollow, thick sinuous legs not unlike a draconian monster with huge black talons and the upper body of a muscular man, was an image he had forever associated with terror. Its bone-white skin and pale-green stripes that ran up and down its back were synonymous with his fear of combat. And its mask, terrible beyond even his recollection to see, plagued him so that just trying to envision it sent him straight back to reality with a dizzy jerk of his head.

* * *

Suddenly everything was calm. Even the air seemed to sleep with a deathly chill. Jayce looked around in a panic and then panicked and fell over upon seeing Shin, who resonated with a visibly aura of black flames that licked off his skin and formed laughing skull of smoke in the air before dissipating.

_My heart!_ Jayce thought, clutching chest. _It has stopped!!!_ He pounded at his heart two times, then a third and felt the blood pump correctly. Seeing a man like him first thing after a nightmare would kill lesser men. Jayce straightened himself, honored to be one of the few men to be unshaken by such a sight, and corrected himself into meditation at once. _So long as I show him no fear I should be fine. He is the type of man to operate based on the instincts of other creatures, myself included._ Jayce attempted to reenter his meditation when a familiarly dirty feeling came over him. He creased his brow but didn't move otherwise from his pose.

Guy entered the room panting and looked around until he made his usual cocky, condescending grunt of approval. "There you are" he growled as he stomped through the rubble in Jayce's direction. "Still swordless, I see." Jayce knew right away what was going on. Shin was unarmed and Guy was coming to kill him after Shin's apparent reinforcements came to aid him and caught up with Guy. At least, that was his theory, and it was close. "I'm sorry, shinigami, but I need my powers back for a bit to quell my soldier, so I need you to die. This will only take a second, so stay still."

Shin didn't move at all. Not even his hair. Guy drew up his sword, preparing for a simple head-cleaving slash, but Jayce took up his blade and came up to stop him. The sudden rush of adrenaline that awakened him from his dream was still burning fiercely inside his veins and made him act on impulse to save Shin's life. His sword blocked Guy's and didn't allot it a single inch to budge. Jayce took a swing and forced Guy into a retreat, then advanced with regally measured and practiced two-handed swipes which he threw the rest of his body into.

"What's this?" Guy smugly said as he blocked the blows with a single hand. "The high-and-mighty prince is stepping out of his frilled trousers and into the fight? I'm so scared I'm shaking!" Jayce caught the blade and pressed in hard. Guy was stuck standing form the force but wasn't nearly overpowered. He leaned in himself and reversed the force back onto Jayce. "Oh no, wait. **That's you!**" Guy pushed Jayce away with a short shove and then kicked him in the throat. Using the motion form his kick he lifted up and kicked once more in a propeller-style rotation. Jayce went against the far wall, shaking the floor just enough for Shin to feel it.

"Eh?" he asked. Shin's meditation took place at the edge of an infinitely black cliff that led down into a spiraling well of screaming souls and grotesque images of death. Even in his mind he couldn't escape his true self, the grim reaper in a cloak of war. He stood up suddenly, thinking nothing of the deathly-cold wind that carried the spirits over the edge and dragged them down into the eternal Event Horizon of souls. The sky was somehow clearing and real light was shining forth. In a brief flash of white Shin was displaced from his meditation spot and sent straight into the realm of Shikei, still overrun with the sword-stealing spirit plants. Half the field was on fire and form the black ashes grew more, taller and thicker flowers. Shin looked up at the top of his mountain and saw it was on fire, so he hurriedly ran and flash-stepped up the steep climb.

"Finally" Shikei groaned. "I thought you had forgotten that you had a sword for a moment. In a way I was happy."

"Happy?" Shin asked, stepping into the flames and dispelling them. "Why would my sword be happy to be forgotten?" Shikei's fire returned around his white body and formed the same ethereal, ever-moving cloak of the darkest black which exposed only his meaty white hands and skeletal face. On his back there hung a scythe by a chain of hooked swastika-symbol links that crossed his covered chest. He took the chain in both hands and shattered it, sending the scythe up into the air, right for Shin, who caught it and spun it around his head several times before planting it on his shoulder. The plants didn't wither away but they did show fear and didn't approach any further. Shin stepped in with a hand stretched out to grasp that of his inner Death, who mimicked his gesture and joined their hands together with a tight clamp.

"It would mean" Shikei explained "that I wouldn't get worn down anymore by your berserk fighting style."

"You love it" Shin said. Suddenly a strike of black lightning shook the world and shattered the peak of the mountain. The flowers dispersed, evaporated in screaming clouds of black and the energy shot back as a flash of light to Guy. Jayce was blinded temporarily and Guy was totally moved from his foundation as the energy returned to him in an uncontrolled amount. He felt a rush of power but a huge drain of intellect as his pressure pushed his reason away.

"What the hell!?" Guy shouted, lurching over. "How...How could this happen? It should be impossible!!!"

"There is no wall" Shin began "or barrier that death cannot penetrate." Shin had his sword out and pointed the tip right at Guy's heart, then jerked it up and aimed between his snide, narrow eyes. "I can overcome any damn power you throw at me, you cocky bastard!"

"In saying that" Guy began, regaining his intellect as his power dampened within him, "aren't you being cock-sure yourself?"

"Nope" Shin said. Jayce braced himself for a blast of power out of nowhere but saw Shin sheathe his sword instead. "**If it's a fact then it's not bragging.**" The wall was torn down and the ceiling started to collapse as Jin made his entrance once more with both hideous knives in hand.

_**REEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIII!!!!!!!**_

The battle would end in the throne hall at last! Shin, coated with dried blood and Jayce, bleeding new blood by the second, were now backed up against the nefarious Guy Rose and his sword-stealing power by the juggernaut shinigami Jin!

* * *

Verven Uitbarsting: Color Explosion (Dutch)


	72. Blue Sky, Don't Die

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The pressure wave reached far and wide, incapacitating most of the town's people who stood outside the mansion, waiting for the news of what was happening within. Children and women, men and elders all fell down while the rest staggered around clutching at their bodies to keep them together. Only one man stood unaffected aside form the whipping of his ponytail in the god-sent wind that flew around him like a flock of frantic birds. Hoji Araijin stood above the chaos, peering hard into the sky and snorting loud his nose.

"Might rain later" Hoji noted. He seemed not to notice the pressure, despite the nosebleed that it brought on he was sniffling away. "Tch, damn. That's gonna make walking back home a bitch." Another long drawn snort. Hoji placed his hands in his pocket and moved for shelter. He didn't want to get rained on.

Meanwhile, inside the mansion, the fight broke out in a surprising explosive fashion. Guy was suddenly defending against the blade of a manically glaring Shin.

"Did you get stronger" Guy asked "all of a sudden?"

"Nope" Shin said. "I just decided not to screw around with you!" Shin kicked Guy in his gut and drove his toes up under his ribcage, reaching into his lungs and blowing the air out of them. Guy was thrown into the air where Shin gave chase, sword drawn over head. Guy blocked Shin's powerful blow and was sent to the ground where he bounced off the destroyed stone floor and spun until he hit the ground again. Shin landed softly, poised his sword forward and rushed. Guy struggled up and blocked Shin's attacks, finding a second wind of life in the relentless assault. He ran away from Shin as he blocked, keeping up his defense the whole time. He eventually found his way to the rushing, berserk Jin who was reeling his arms around for a swing. He left to the side, leaving Shin to slide on the ground to a stop and block Jin's berserk accidental swing.

"Watch it Jin" Shin said. "I'm on your side."

_**KYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!**_ Jin roared.

_It seems_ Shikei began wisely _that his pressure is overpowering his mind. He can't see straight, nor can he swing properly._

"That's annoying" Shin said. "I may as well get Suichi in here to help me fight!"

"Who was that?" Guy asked from the room away. Shin looked over and saw him with his sword in front of his eyes. Shin's eyes shot wide open and he flash-stepped to the side as the glaring beam just missed him. "I didn't think you'd bee that gullible" Guy admitted.

"Then why try?" Shin asked, landing and twirling his sword around his body. "If you know Death is coming why would you run?"

"How absurd!" Guy shouted. He jumped up and aimed once more through his blade, shooting multiple possession beams at a lively Shin who dodged each one and flipped away. "You actually believe that you are a true manifestation of Death?"

"I think" Shin said as he dodged "you call us 'Death Gods' in this region. 'Shinigami' is essentially the same thing, you know. I consider myself a God and I consider myself death. That's the only thing that makes sense." Shin was done dodging. He jumped up onto a wall and then blasted from the wall straight at Guy who still floated in mid-air. Guy blocked Shin's flying thrust and was pushed into the wall behind him. Shin came back, kicking off the air, and started attacking with chop after chop coming from all possible angles. His speed was hindered because of the power he backed the swings with in the attempt to simply sever Guy's head from his slender, immaculate shoulders.

"You shinigami" Guy began as he defended "are incredibly simple. You think, just because you have a few powerful assets in your army, you can take whatever part of the world you wish! Be it this region or the one next to it, the Imperial Dynasty or the 'Order of the Flying Mountains', you simply refuse to step down as a self-proclaimed 'dominating power!'"

"I'm not even affiliated" Shin argued "with Seireitei. Just Rei Unohana."

"Who?" Guy asked. Shin kicked him again, square in the face, pushing his head into the stone wall with pain. Shin fell down to the ground after that, unable to stay in mid-air, and began panting. Jin creapt up somehow and loomed over Shin like a tower of destruction, taking in a raspy breath just before raising up his one terrible butcher blade to strike with. Shin back-flipped over himself, caught the ground and jumped as far away as he could. He noticed Guy was gone and searched high and low around the broken room.

He saw a shadow retreat into the halls and gave it chase. "Hey Jin!" Shin shouted as he fled. He caught the crazy boy's attention and beckoned him to follow. "Let's get this son of a bitch!"

_**KAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!**_ Jin roared in reply. They both gave chase to their fleeing opponent, unaware of who they were really chasing...

* * *

_I've figured it out_ Suichi thought as he ran in a clumsy stumble. _This Jin guy has an aura comprised of multiple elements. I could definitely sense a strong bond of Earth in him, but his aura as a whole was just a bombardment of all the other elements. There was fire, ice, water, air, even some of Shin's aura of Death. Jin is an incredible case. Perhaps he's the one we're after!_

Suichi was right on the mark, although there wasn't anyone to acknowledge it. He slowed himself to a stop to catch his breath and looked through a doorway at the end of the long hall he just conquered. He finally saw it! Although it was littered with a myriad of either dead or dying bodies, the entrance was in plain sight, just across from the foyer! Suichi grinned happily and began calmly limping for the door. Then a blast of pure force hit him from behind and he went from the top of the stairs to the center of the floor below, unable to gripe due to the extreme exhaustion and strain that racked his body.

"You again!?" Guy shouted. He jumped away from Suichi and Suichi instinctively jumped up, although he couldn't fight. "Suichi, right? The assassin, I assume?"

"Dang" Suichi said sarcastically, "how'd you guess?"

"You're little friend Shin" Guy began with a scathing hint in his voice "has gotten you into a lot of trouble!"

"Oh, on the contrary" Suichi said. "I believe, in the long run, he's bound to _save_ me from a lot of trouble. Hopefully not any time soon, of course."

"What are you saying?" Guy asked. "That man is a living burden! I'll prove it to you by killing you with all this rage he gave me!" Guy put his sword up to his eyes once more and cast a bright flash at Suichi, but Suichi was much smarter than Guy knew. He had replaced his body with that of a dead one lying on the floor and vanished. Guy spun around, catching a glimpse of Suichi with his blade held high in a back-stabbing motion, and swung at it. The vision vanished like a puff of smoke and the ground started to shake.

"Don't worry" Suichi said from the rafters of the ceiling he hid behind. "It's just Death and Madness joined together as an unstoppable monster of destruction. You can fight them, no problem!"

"**I'll kill you all!!!**" Guy shouted. He looked at the duel doorways that led to that long hall with building dread. The shaking and pounding was growing ever stronger as they, those two monsters, drew closer. Suichi grinned and held on for dear life. Finally, the rumbling stopped and the ground was still. Now the fear started building up as well. The blackness of the arched doorways became exaggerated through Shin's approaching aura and two faced came to light in the darkness.

The first was Jin's face, a twisted expression of murderous glee with his wide mouth in a horrific grin and his eyes sloped with more evil than even Guy could willfully muster. The five claws of hair over his face were spiked and angled like lightning, though the effect of the light on his face made them look more like disfiguring, bloody scars that somehow hung un the air around him rather than on his skin. Yes, his face was so terribly scary that even the air around him seemed to bleed, especially around his round, domed head where the blood pooled and formed at soft curls that clung close to his skull.

Then, in the opposite doorway, the glaring white eyes and dashing white teeth of the shinigami came from the blackness and moved out into the light, his short black hair rippling like fire off his head.

"What's wrong, mercenary-man?" Shin asked. He brought out from the darkness a weapon in his hands, **a scythe,** and flicked his tongue to lick his lower lip. His reflection in the blade came back as a menacing skull, both black eyes glaring down Guy from within the soul-killing metal. "You've got all the brains here, right? We're just a couple of berserk monsters looking for a flayed human carcass to devour. That's your approximate interpretation, I believe." Shin took a step onto the stairs. Jin smashed several stairs with a stomp. "Oh no, wait, I'm supposed to be an imperialist pillager who fights selfishly for an entire people, a militant officer of war in service to some distant-ruling figure-head. And what about Jin? Is he just some psychotic nursery case?"

"**The crowing cock at dawn**" Jin said with a shivering mad voice "**sings only for me! Just for me!!!**" Shin took a long, empathetic look at Jin from across the short stretch of room between them. Then he gave a single laugh as if to encourage him and turned back to Guy as he walked calmly down the steps.

"Actually" Shin said, "I'd agree with you on that regard. He is pretty damn crazy."

"Stay back!" Guy exclaimed, holding up his sword with a shaky hand. "I'm warning you!!!"

"It's funny, isn't it?" Shin asked. "I've done all your work for you, killed all your bandits that you were holding in the prison, beat some sense of war and struggle into your Regent and still, **STILL,** you refuse to let me take my only obliged dues."

"What!?" Guy shouted. "No! I'll kill you! Pompous fool! Ignorant bastard!!!" Guy fired his beam, improperly without an incantation, and Shin deflected it into the ground with a quick spin of his scythe around his wrist. He came slowly across the room, making his trek of a few seconds seem to be years long, all while Jin silently stomped his way over to the door to look at the sky he missed so much.

"**It's all black**" Jin said. **"I haven't missed a thing.**"

"Jin" Shin called, grabbing his attention. Suichi looked away and braced himself. "You wanna see something...**red?**" Shin kicked Guy in the gut, then brought his scythe handle sharply down onto his head, forcing him to his knees. Taking no more time to appreciate the pain he put his enemy in, Shin spun his scythe around to pick up its speed and cleanly, effortlessly sliced Guy's head off his shoulders.

* * *

It was over, but something else began. Rain. Silver blades of water came down from the cloak of blackness overhead that was the stormy sky and rain began falling into the paralyzed city streets. What had started as a discrete rescue mission had become yet another log in the book of Shin Kenpachi's crime. An entire town brought to paralysis merely from his visit and a manically powerful monster released back into the world that sealed him away. Jin stood out in the rain and felt it for the first time in so long. His tucked his blades back into his body, pushing them through his clay-like skin and then drawing his bloodless hands back out. His bangs were pushed carefully away from his face, three to the right and two to the left over his curved ears, and he looked up into the sky.

"I missed it" Jin admitted. "Even though it isn't as pleasant as sunshine, I missed his."

"The rain?" Shin asked. His blade stayed perched on his shoulder, no longer a harvester but simply a blade so the rain could wash the disgraceful blood off before he sheathed it again. "Even to me it seems oddly nostalgic."

"Shin!" Hoji shouted. Shin snapped to attention and saw Hoji come jumping into scene, planting himself forehead-first at the ground before his feet. "I'm sorry, Shin. I disgraced myself and you!"

"How?" Shin asked. "Few things can phase me as long as you could win."

"I struck my opponent" Hoji began "when he could no longer defend himself. Pity my poor decision. I did the honorable thing and removed myself from the rest of the combat up until right now! It was the only thing I could do!" Shin took off his scabbard and hit Hoji lightly in the head with it.

"Bad" Shin chided. "Don't hit people if they can't hit back."

"I'M SORRY!!!" Hoji shouted, praying that he didn't start using his actual sword.

"Come on up" Shin said. Hoji immediately jumped to his feet and snorted back a clot of blood while Shin put the scabbard back in his waist belt. "That was disgusting" Shin said, regarding his snorting. Hoji looked down and away, ashamed of himself.

"Hello, Death" Jin greeted, kneeling down to Shin. He looked over at Hoji and smiled at him. Hoji picked up on his childish vibes and looked back, his face still marred with shame. "Hello, Death."

"Oi, Shin" Hoji began flatly, "this guy's kinda creeping me out."

"You'll get used to him" Shin said. "This is Jin. He's our orphan."

"Tch!?" Hoji grunted taking a surprised stance as if he were punched with no guard. "You serious!? This huge dude?" Jin smiled with his mouth hanging open and his eyes went beady. "When I think of a war orphan I think of a little kid, at least half my height, curled up in a corner growing mushrooms off his head from moping too much! What the hell is THIS!?"

"Don't act so surprised" Suichi said, fumbling his feet into position. Hoji was shocked to see the usually unscathed or at least slightly disheveled Suichi come into scene with dried blood all over his uniform and a painful sway in his stance. "There are such things as giants roaming around. I've killed one before. It ain't easy." The drain of energy finally caught up to Suichi and he passed out. At first he simply stood with his eyes rolled up but then as he began to fall forward Hoji stepped forward and caught his head on his shoulder.

"Dammit..." Hoji cursed. He hoisted Suichi up onto his shoulder and began walking after Shin who was already strolling out of town. "Dammit all to hell and back! I missed some good action!"

"Mr. Kenpachiiiii!!!" Jayce called. Hoji looked back and saw the regal boy running as fast as he could after the retreating spec of total blackness. "Mr. Kenpachi, please wait a moment!" Shin turned around and sheathed his sword, trying not to act hostile now that his job was done, and let the young ruler confront him. Jayce didn't get to start as eloquently as he wished as a sword got positioned to his throat.

"Can I redeem myself here, Shin?" Hoji asked, holding his sword in one hand and Suichi in the other.

"Don't be an idiot" Shin said. "Give Suichi to Jin. He's much bigger than you."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He tossed Suichi over to Jin who caught him and marched over with a still innocent smile on his face.

"What's up?" Shin asked. "We were just leaving, if you were after us for a proper banishment."

"Not at all" Jayce admitted. "Although I can't agree with _any_ of your resolution methods, a great deed was done today, Guy Rose was a menace to our province and my hiring of him was the only way to bring peace to our border lands. I must thank you..." Jayce bowed down at the waist with a hand at his chest and one foot drawn back a step. The un-traditional bow perplexed the Shinigami and invoked a two-part harmonious head-tilt between Hoji and Shin. "...however, there is something I must ask of you before you leave."

"Really?" Shin asked. "What might that be?"

"I heard" Jayce began "you say that you work under Rei Unohana. I know of her, she researches Hollows in the woods some distance away."

"A distance and a half" Shin said. "Is that something that concerns you? Is she affiliated with an enemy of yours?"

"No" Jayce said. "There is...a certain Hollow that haunts me. It killed my sister and forced me into this position. I...I want you to find it and kill it if you can, and if you must use Lady Unohana to help you. It is not something as petty as revenge for me...it would mean my life if you could do this for me, even though I have nothing to give you."

"Done" Shin said. Jayce looked up in surprise to see Shin's back walking away. "You want me to kill a Hollow? Big deal. I kill them for fun. Regardless if there's a vendetta involved, **that Hollow and every other one I see is as good as dead.**" Jayce felt solace finally sweep into his chest. The rain made his clothes heavy and close to his skin, and the cold sent heavy shivers through his body, but none of that concerned him. He knew that, in the vanguard of Shin Kenpachi, such a dream of personal triumph would be realized.

Then the rain reminded him of one important thing: Shin didn't know which Hollow would lift the burden from Jayce's heart, so he ran after them once more to remind them. Shin Kenpachi was reported from the Regent of Xierd Leek to have come into town during a mercenary uprising under the lead of former wanted bandit Guy Rose and took justice into his own hands. The captain of the guard, Kinden, was instructed to attest to it and had no problem doing so, though he made no official mention of Suichi. The steel cage remained in the dungeonous basement of the mansion as the crews of workmen rebuilt it, no one saying a word about it, as its contents were on the move through the forests back home.


	73. Rock me, Amadeus

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The shinigami troupe, now one stronger, walked through the thick forests along the path which only that one found too small. Shin walked in front, hands in pockets, and watched the world around him move to the beat of his deadly footsteps. Hoji walked close to him, arms crossed and upper robes folded down over his waist as mantles, staying alert and vigilant of the moving world. Suichi was still nearly incapacitated from his over-expenditure of energy back at Xierd Leek and rode in a satchel made of Jin's torn robes which Jin gleefully carried on his back. He was so enthused about the outside world, one he hadn't seen in apparently so long, at least not as vibrant, that every little thing captivated his entire attention.

Hoji was getting sick of it.

"Tch!" Hoji angrily ticked as he turned around with a glare. Jin was poking at a peculiar flower which grew from the bark of a tree and pursing his lips tightly at it. "Hey! Keep moving! There's flowers everywhere!" Jin picked himself up and continued marching. Shin just kept walking calmly along, ignoring he signs of strife, and smiled at the blue sky above.

"Tch!" Hoji shouted again. "Stop poking that rock!" Jin looked away from his work, poking a rock, and lost his attention to it, breaking it with one too-powerful press. He looked back, then shifted his eyes around rapidly and suspiciously, then hurried along.

"TCH!!!" Hoji shouted with great anger. "What the hell are you doing!?" Jin was lying down on his stomach, face flat in the dirt, almost like he had frozen up mid-step and fell over.

"The ground isn't wet here" Jin said. "I'm just taking the time to enjoy it."

"**MOVE IT!!!**" Hoji demanded. Jin hurried along and made long, speedy strides over to Shin who waved at him and welcomed him to view the world as he walked. Hoji snarled openly at the image and stormed over, stowing his hands in his pockets and slouching forward. He remembered the very moment when he began to hate this newcomer, the orphan-boy Jin...

"_So now what?" Hoji asked. Shin and his company had taken refuge inside a cave while a torrential downpour swept the land and impeded their vital vision in the already dark woods. Jin was sleeping near the mouth of the cave, letting the rain beat against his hand and smiling. Suichi was next to the fire they built, thawing, apparently. "We've got a few days of hiking to get back to the manor, that is if you don't get us lost." Shin hit Hoji's head with an open palm. A harmless slap without any real power behind it, thankfully._

"_I get us lost?" Shin asked. Hoji rubbed his forehead and faced away from Shin to scowl. "Jin's obviously big enough to be walking. He's bigger than any of us, anyway. Age-wise I can't tell, his spiritual energy is all over the damn place, but if we really want to find out you can chop his leg off and count the rings."_

"_Was that a joke?" Hoji asked. "You're so damn dumb I can't always tell." Shin kicked him, hard that time, and paralyzed him._

"_We'll just have to get walking" Shin said. "I know how to get back, if memory serves me well. Suichi's in totally bad shape right now, so we'll need to figure out how to bring him along."_

"_Right" Hoji groaned, rubbing his gut. "We can alternate carrying him on the walk back, you and me."_

"_I think" Shin said "Jin will be able to carry him better than the both of us combined."_

"_Tch?" Hoji scoffed._

"_Excuse me" Jin interrupted. He was crouched over next to them with a concerned smile on his face. "I don't mean to be rude, but I think I have a solution that can work for any of us here."_

"_Oh really?" Shin asked. "Then I'll leave that to you, Jin. I trust you to see that Suichi is taken back with us and that all his blood, what's left of it, remains inside his veins." Jin smiled and stood up, his head smashing into the ceiling. Despite Shin and Hoji's winces of pain and the sliver of blood trailing down his eager and enthused face, Jin made no movement of pain._

"_I won't disappoint you, Shin!" Jin shouted. "I swear!"_

Now Jin had apparently gained favor in Shin's eyes as a readily trainable disciple. Hoji still couldn't decide what he hated the most or liked the least about the overly-joyful young man, but he knew that his huge self didn't sit well with him. Hoji glowered from the back ranks for most of that day, all of them walking down the solid, beaten path through the forest. Eventually their stomachs beckoned them to rest, so Shin scouted ahead and found a stream teaming with fish. He made a crude spear of his own to fish with, catching plenty enough to feed his own mouth, while Hoji caught them by hand and in the end had enough to feed himself twice, which he intended to do.

"What should we do" Jin asked "about Shichi?"

"Suichi" Shin corrected. "No one here is named Shichi."

"Really?" Jin asked. "What about that one with the long hair?"

"I'd venture to guess" Hoji said "that your hair is the longest out of all of us."

"Hey yeah" Shin agreed, cupping his chin. "Mostly his bangs, though, and only when they're over his face." Jin took a curious finger to his streaking, red bangs and ran them in front of his eyes, measuring them out to be longer than his own face.

"Huh" Jin grunted. "They are. Strange..." He said that as if it were all news to him...

* * *

The trek continued. After so long of walking even Shin tired of it and once opted to build a wagon, knowing full well that they had no resources to do it with. Hoji offered to use his wind powers to somehow throw everyone into the sky but his plans were dashed when, after a raging debate, he discovered that clouds weren't solid. Jin constantly remarked at the world around him, running off like a child, Suichi strapped to his back silently resting. Shin just laughed and allowed him to enjoy his freedom, not interrupting when Hoji cursed the sweet innocent monster at each opportunity.

The four, three conscious, shinigami were within the final stretch of terrain until the mansion's gates, but a new obstacle came upon them and stopped them all at the border of a pathless forest. Shin and Hoji both glared with dark shadows cast over their eyes, lips curled up in quiet snarls. Jin looked ahead and saw what his comrades saw but only tilted his head and let his bangs drift off over his ear, no anger.

"It's dark in there" Jin flatly observed.

"Hollows" Shin growled.

"Bastardy sons of goddamn bastards" Hoji cursed. He brought his thumb up from his arm-cross and flicked it hard across his nose. "TCH! I hate Hollows!"

"Do you?" Shin sarcastically asked. "I thought you liked them. Good practice."

"Tch!?" Hoji loudly scoffed. "What the hell!? Are you suddenly filling in for Suichi, prick!?"

"Yup" Shin answered as he walked into the darkness. Jin marched after him and the Hoji dashed forward to catch up. All three were swallowed by the darkness where the Hollows they felt lurked and stalked through the impenetrable darkness.

"It's dark in here" Hoji complained. "We need some light."

"Really?" Shin said.

"Suichi would have been funnier" Hoji said. Shin laughed to himself at his failure at the assassin's quirky humor. "Damn. I wish my element was fire. I could give us a torch, probably, I think. How would that work?"

"All of us" Shin said "seem to be far too aligned to the darkness for our own good. Death, Ice, Wind; all primarily invisible in the right conditions. Especially the Wind."

"Death's intangible" Hoji said. "It's not quite the same as invisible. Hey, wait, what the hell were we talking about before!?"

"I have an idea" Jin said. He closed his eyes tightly, then opened them which led to an explosion of dark red light. Chromatic ribbons of multi-colored light flew out from his eyes and illuminated the surrounding area in rippling waves. Six glaring eyes fled at the light, rustling the brush around them. Shin's knees went low and his hand snapped to his sword. Hoji drew his out in both hands and held it horizontally, blade up, at eye level.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "I saw that! You bastards!" His voice echoed into the darkness and then returned, bouncing off the trees. More rustling followed as the Hollows rushed around in the cover of the shadows.

"Stay alert" Shin said. "Jin, stick close. Hoji, don't do anything stupid."

"I won't" Hoji said. "I'm gonna wait for **them** to do something stupid!"

"Good man" Shin said. "I know where to go form here. Just follow me."

"Alright" Jin agreed. The shinigami began marching once again, Hoji circling the group, changing his pose as rapidly as he was stepping, trying to intimidate the Hollows even further into their apparent fear. Little did he know that the fear he was instilling was only a means of entertainment to the monsters as they opened their skeletal mouths to breathe laughter into the air. Shin whipped his head around, hearing them breath and feeling their corrupt life resonating at him. Jin was just grinning and glowing like a lantern, ecstatic to be helping his good friends Death, Death and Shin.

"....." A Hollow approached silently, but the hardened ears of the shinigami picked it's advance and turned to it. The Hollow came from the darkness, perfectly humanoid aside from its long, lanky limbs with a huge mask of tribal design baring giant teeth and round, glowing eyes bordered by a rotten-colored gray mane of hair.

"**HEEEEEE-YAAAAAHHH!!!!**" The Hollow screamed. It twirled a spear above its head and stabbed down at Shin. Shin's sword appeared, blocking the tip, while Shin stood very straight with his right hand in the folded pocket of his pants. He looked out of the corner of his eye and lethargically decided to kill the Hollow. He swung the spear tip away, stepped in and began swinging. The Hollow's foot met the ground and pulled the rest of its body into a low crouch while it brought its starch-white spear of Hollow bones back to block Shin's lazy one-arm advance. Shin didn't even move tactically. He just walked casually into the Hollow, swinging his sword.

"Show off" Hoji called. Another Hollow came out silently from the brush, wielding two short serrated sabers against Hoji. Its eyes were more roughly angled and angry looking with two long fangs parallel in its upper jaw which reached down to its chin. The Hollows seemed to be of almost identical figure and form, although they held different weapons. Hoji's animal instincts picked pu on the danger and he kicked his leg to throw his entire body away from the attack. He landed, pointed his sword at the Hollow, then snapped it into a reverse-grip position. He rushed in, swinging wildly, back and forth with his whole body, connecting his blade with the jagged edges of the Hollow's weapons.

"Ooooooo" Jin awed. "They sure are strong."

"**They're nothing"** a cold, hollow voice said from behind. Jin, not thinking, turned around and threw his friends into the disadvantageous darkness to see the third Hollow of long, lanky form standing straight up, meeting Jin eye-to-eye. **"Bow before our might! We are **_**Amadeus!!!**_" The hollow brought it's long arm up, made an angry palm above its head, then swung his arm straight down with the underarm of his wrist leading the swing. The hand stopped just in front of Jin's chest, made no contact, but still some arcane force threw Jin through the air and slammed his side into a tree.

* * *

_Damn_ Shin cursed, blocking stabs and slashes on instincts. _I can't see._

_Do you really need to?_ Shikei asked.

_Oh it's you_ Shin replied tiredly, still hopping around. _Hello, Shikei. What do you want?_

_Don't take that tone with me_ Shikei demanded. _Close your eyes!_

_Can't get any darker, I suppose_ Shin thought. He closed his eyes and saw the darkness dancing about. The spots and blotches of what used to be light in his mind's eye suddenly swam around and formed a trail of movement made by the Hollow which made one last powerful swipe before it jumped away. Shin jumped over it, back-flipped, and landed in a low crouch. _What's this?_

_I am allowing you_ Shikei explained _to see sound._

_Ah_ Shin thought affirmatively. _I get it. I'm seeing the resonance of the air as the Hollow moves through it...cool._ Shin used his borrowed power and made his way through the woods in a slow crawl. Each inch he moved resonated back to him in real-time as visible echoes of the air as it moved. The world to him became a blur of chalky-white lines which became thick, misty haze as the wind blew through them. He saw the Hollow that Hoji fought, the taller Hollow that had attacked Jin, and of course the rapid displacement from the Hollow that came behind him.

Shin spun around, his heel hooked into the dirt, and swung the spear-tip up just as it was thrust. The Hollow stopped just short of Shin's reach but Shin advanced and got inside. He stabbed into the Hollow's arm with a lunge and slashed down, cutting a gash into the Hollow's side. The hollow didn't howl, it just switched hands and attacked, stabbing down from above. Shin went back on the defensive and blocked. The force of the ferocious stabs sent him down to the ground. He had to brace himself with his free hand to continue blocking as rapidly as the spear came.

"Shin!" Hoji shouted, swinging wildly in every direction at the loss of his vision. "If you can see him, tell me where he went! I'm blind as hell!" Hoji heard his opponent take a step and swung on it hard. He heard a bush move and swung. He heard nothing and swung several times. His actual enemy was standing away from his wild swings, observing his wild actions with its supreme vision. It hopped over to the leading Hollow, one which stood tall and straight with its more defined arms crossed and its mask hidden by the darkness.

"He's an idiot" the jagged-bladed Hollow whispered.

"Indeed" Amadeus agreed.

"Are you talking about me!?" Hoji shouted. "I'll kill you, you damn....**GAHHH!!!**" Hoji took his sword in its release position, Amadeus aimed its palm at him and fired a blast of air which snapped the sword out of Hoji's grip and stuck it into a tree. "Oh, damn! Crap!" Hoji became worried and searched behind him for his sword but was taken down from behind by the blunt sides of the Hollow's blades. He landed with a grunt and struggled under the weight of the monster. Shin didn't need to see Hoji's pained groans to know he was in trouble.

He grabbed the spear s it stabbed past his sword, drove it into the ground and climbed up it, swinging a deep gash into the leaning chest of the Hollow. He took the spear with him and threw it through the air into the back of the other Hollow, forcing it to tumble away, roll over and throw its bony blade at Shin. He dodged it and dove to recover Hoji but didn't anticipate an attack from behind. The spear Hollow caught the blade and smashed Shin's head with the blunt side, knocking him out until his face hit the ground.

_Ow_ Shin thought.

"Ow" Shin vocalized, realizing the fruitlessness of expressing pain to his inner fighting spirit. He was pinned along with Hoji by the two Hollows as their leader stomped over and positioned itself just over their heads. It's mask was adorned in the back with long, stiff feather-like growths in multiple shades of gray to represent the faded vision of Hollow colors. The front of the mask, below its rectangular eye slots, extended out like a giant bird's beak, revealing the stubble-marked lower jaw and human mouth underneath. Not a Hollow, but a **Menos.** Shin saw this through his sound-vision and opened his eyes to see that he was fully adjusted to the darkness at last.

"An _Adjuchas...?_" Shin growled. Amadeus cocked his head, smiling arrogantly, and crossed his arms. He was about to start on a rough, arrogant tangent about his supreme power, when a piercing roar shook the trees and the ground like an unholy tremor sent rippling up from Hell.

**YYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!**

Suichi was laid carefully on the ground, still wrapped in his tattered cradle. Two glaring, curved blades shone bright, chaotic light into the darkness and revealed the wide-eyed Jin. His body absorbed the darkness, letting it cling around him like inky splotches from an animal in panic, and gave him an infinitely terrifying appearance. The shivering air only amplified the terror as the Hollows became disoriented and stood up. Jin rushed in, took his left arm above his head, stepped in with his left foot and led off with a merciless sweep, ending with his back arched back, his head flung back, his blade straight up to the sky and the Hollow's head **smashed into oblivion**. Jin breathed heavy, moist breaths as he stomped forward to face down and then rip the face off of Amadeus. The hollow was stunned.


	74. Spirit of War

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Coming out roaring and growling, shouting and screaming, swinging his arms and throwing the air, Jin came out fighting! He swung his blades with an insane ferocity in random directions, slicing through the air with hollow tearing sounds. Amadeus, the beak-masked Hollow, stood shock still as the mad giant roared at him, then jumped away, just in time to dodge the tree-chopping slice. Jin looked around like a mad, hungry animal, his streaking bangs forming jagged bolts in the air before his face.

_**REEEEEEEIIIIII!!!!!!**_ Jin roared.

"What was that?" Hoji asked.

"Something familiar, eh?" Shin said as he got up. The Hollow that had pinned him down was in a full retreat, running from the crazed maniac wielding duel-bladed maniac. "Sounds like a name, maybe?" Hoji pulled his back off the ground and looked at the darkness, blankly. He began wracking his mind for possibilities but found nothing. Upon Shin's further prodding with his eyes Hoji crossed his legs and rested his chin on his fist to meditate about it. While he thought, Shin dashed after the retreating Hollow and drew out his blade.

"No running" Shin chided. The Hollow tried to turn around in time but when it looked to see the chasing dread it wasn't there. Shin descended swiftly from above and pushed the Hollow out of Jin's pressure and into the inky darkness. Even with no sight Shin could feel the fear and slashed and hacked the Hollow to pieces.

"I need backup" Amadeus said with fear. Jin stomped forward and broke a tree. Not under foot, but his footfall was so powerful and chaotically fearful that the trees around him buckled in retreat. "I need backup!!!" Amadeus called. Jin was still approaching with heavy, murderous stomps, growling and lowing through grit teeth. "Dammit! Help me! We are Amadeus, together!!! Come together!!!"

"I GOT IT!!!" Hoji shouted, suddenly standing up. He snapped his fingers and let out a Tch at his own slow mindedness. Shin came out from the darkness covered in Hollow blood, tapping his sword on his shoulders. He opened his eyes, flicking more drops of blood off his face from his eye lids. "Why didn't I figure it out sooner!? It's...**FAYE!!!**" Shin stopped mid-step. His face became blank and flat.

"No..." Shin said. "No...no, not at all. It's _Rei_."

"Oh!" Hoji shouted, pointing up. "That makes much more sense! Great point, Shin! I am a fool!" Hoji flash-stepped and planted his forehead onto Shin's, confronting him at a dangerously close range. "**OF COURSE I KNOW IT'S REI! Quit being sarcastic, DAMN IT!!!**" Hoji pressed his head into Shin's to sink his point in deep. Shin didn't move or blink. He just pushed Hoji away with his spare hand, wiping away the blood on his palm, and switched hands. He swung his sword in his path twice to throw the remaining blood off it.

"This guy" Shin began "is getting on my nerves." Hoji drew his sword and placed it on his shoulder in a manner mirroring Shin.

"**HAAAAAHH!!!" **Jin roared. He growled out breaths and lowed in hissing tones. His madness permeated the air and frightened Amadeus to a starting retreat. "**NO...RUNNING FROM DEATH!!!"** Amadeus began running anyway, despite the warning. As he ran he took a piece of the madness with him. Jin, who still radiated with that vile blackness from before, watched him go as Shin and Hoji came to his sides.

"He's not a good listener" Shin said.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "What a moron." Both shinigami threw their swords to their sides and dashed off after the fast Adjuchas. Amadeus sensed them coming, one on each side, and then he felt the terrible stomping of the huge one coming straight from behind. Shin came up on the right, so his blade was closer to the retreating Hollow. Hoji did the same, coming up from the left with his sword held in the right hand, and glared the Hollow down. He pointed at it, catching its attention, made a throat-slitting motion with his thumb, then finalized it with a flip of his middle finger.

"You can't catch me!" Amadeus shouted. "I am supreme! A high-powered Adjuchas-class Menos! I am the seargent of an army! I have an entire legion of undyingly loyal Hollows waiting at my beck and call to fight for me!!!"

"So go get them" Shin called. "It'd be fun to be outnumbered."

"But it wouldn't be fair" Hoji replied, shouting across the zooming trees they ran between. "We're too good for just a bunch of regular Hollows. What about a couple Gillians?"

"Yeah" Shin agreed. "I miss those guys."

"Do you even know what you're talking about!?" Amadeus exclaimed.

"**DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!!!**" Jin roared from behind. The sound of his mad voice was so loud and booming that even Shin and Hoji had to keep their hearts from skipping beats out of their anticipation. Amadeus had to restart it out of fear.

"I think he knows what he's talking about" Shin said in response to Jin's apparently random madness. "You're surrounded by death, Hollow. You may as well just stop and accept your fate."

"**ALRIGHT!!!!"** Amadeus shouted. He stopped dead in his sprint with both arms held out. Somehow all three of them, with Jin close behind, wound up in the open ground under the cloudless sky. The dark forest was behind them and Jin's chaotic aura died down in the sight of the glowing sunlight. "If you wish to fight me...then so be it! I shall appease your wish to engage me, but I do not wish to fight either of you first. I wish to fight the mad, tall one!!!" Jin came roaring out of the woods just in time to meet Amadeus' open palm. He was hit with an explosion of invisible force and thrown head over heels into the trees he just exited. "Come, young one! You have bested one of my minions...but can you face up to true power?"

"He better" Shin said, taking a stand outside the apparent area of the fight. Hoji joined him with arms crossed and sword held down in his hand. He had a snarl across his lips. "If he loses we won't take him home."

"If he loses he'll die" Hoji pointed out.

"I'm sorry" Shin began patronizingly "but I don't hear Suichi's opinion anywhere. Why do you think that is?" Hoji looked around with two quick turns and noticed, unfortunately, that they had left Suichi behind. Hoji rolled his eyes and his neck before leaning forward and dashing off into the woods once more...

* * *

Jin groaned in pain as his back sank into the broken tree. Amadeus simply stood in the middle of the road, arms down and mouth grinning wide under his mask. Shin dashed over to Jin and shook him lightly until he stirred. Jin looked around, confused and startled, his blades knocked from his hands. Shin leaned in and caught his attention. "Hi Death" Jin greeted. "It's a nice day, isn't it?"

"You're fighting now" Shin said. Jin took a moment with a blank stare to affirm the comment, then his bangs zapped into their jagged forms and he rolled back onto his shoulders to kick himself up. When he landed the ground shook and his blades flew up from the ground. He caught them from behind his back and started running with his arms swinging.

"**RAAAAGGHH!!!!!**" Jin shouted. He came upon Amadeus like a stampede, swinging every way the Hollow's body covered. Amadeus kept on his toes and dodged swing after swing, his long mask just inches away from Jin's face. The berserk shinigami didn't notice it, however. He was so intent on cleaving the Hollow to pieces as a claim to victory that the true objective right in front of him didn't matter. He wanted to see blood.

"Foolish simpleton" Amadeus mocked. "You know not true trifle! I am a supreme power!!!" Amadeus jumped back, prompting Jin to rush madly in, and extended both his palms forward. The build up of energy was so sharp that it actually drew Jin in for a moment, then a tremendous blast of force came out and toppled a path of at least twenty trees through the forest. The innocent trees flew from the ground and then crashed down in sequence. Jin was off to the side, instinctively dodging when he felt the pull to avoid the push.

"Nice evade" Shin said. Amadeus wasn't as amused, nor was he entirely annoyed. He had assessed his situation and was neither here nor there emotionally. He was calm. His stubble-covered chin held no smirk or snarl, just a flat mouth to compliment his tiredly glowing eyes. "I see. He _is_ good. Even with all that smack talk earlier he can completely remove his emotions from his fighting. It takes a damn good warrior to pull that off on cue. Jin, however, isn't fighting with emotions either. **He's fighting on instinct.**" Right now those instincts told him to roar.

_**HEEEEYAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!**_

"Scream all you want" Amadeus said, standing straight up with a palm pointed forward. "I show no mercy even to those who scream and beg for their lives!" This time his hand went flat, palm pointed down and fingers pointed all forward. Jin saw it and wanted it off, he didn't want the Hollow's hand connected to its wrist anymore, so he rushed forward and prepared to chop it off. From the Hollow's hand and to the ground came a bone-white staff. Amadeus slowly moved his hand away, keeping it perfectly level, and kicked the staff out of the ground and into the air. Jin's attack was blocked by the staff. It deflected his hit, absorbed the impact and then bounced to the ground and into Amadeus' hands. The Hollow hit Jin in all of his joints with a mad, powerful rush of attacks and then gave a thrust to Jin's stomach.

Jin tumbled down the road in pain, unable to move at all without some striking amount of pain in any of his limbs, until eventually he stopped and coughed on his side. He was still breathing like an animal fighting a stronger prey, but he couldn't move anymore. A defeated monster.

"You see!?" Amadeus proclaimed. "There are none as strong as me, in or out of the Hollow World! You weaklings have no hope to-" He heard some evil sound behind him. The force of Hell climbing up his back and attaching its chains to his neck sent a deep shiver of fear through his body. He turned around and saw a reaper of all living and dead, a **scythe black as it was cold,** and of course the shinigami wielding it.

"No hope, eh?" Shin said. He spun his scythe around and rested it on his back. Amadeus took his staff up and took a short step away. "If there's one thing that warrants hope in this hopeless world...that's the **sweet release of Death!**" Shin repositioned his scythe around his opposite shoulder, the arm holding it wound up tight across his chest, dash forward and slashed at Amadeus' nose. The Hollow wanted to believe that the clashing sound was a successful block...but the beak of his mask had fallen off. It was cut all the way up to the rest of his mask, his entire long nose sliced off. He fell back in distress, unable even to feel pain as it flooded his very mind.

Shin wanted there to be pain, and so he brought it. He picked up the Hollow's dismembered beak, drew it back in his hand and **stabbed through the Hollow's chest** with the very bone-white structure that was once a part of the Hollow.

"**AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!**" Amadeus roared in pain. His cry was heard throughout most of the forest, even all the way to where Hoji had blindly recovered Suichi to carry him back.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Deal with it, pansy. This ain't the Hollow World. We aren't nice guys here. We kill Hollows. **That's just what we do!**" Hoji began his run back, following the voice of the Hollow as a guide...

* * *

"Your pride" Shin explained "is what killed you. It made you feel invincible, like death was just a word to you, nothing but a noise with some meaning beyond your understanding in a far off land of fearful people. Well, unfortunately, that pride built itself up so high that your fear of death was covered up by a bunch of nonsense. You were unprepared to die. That was your downfall." To add insult to injury, as well as adding injury to insult, Shin was standing on the speared beak that he stabbed through the Hollow's chest as it lodged deeper and deeper into the ground. Amadeus coughed up breath after breath of blood while Shin talked. "When death came at you, you didn't know how to handle it and you froze up, your fear conquered you. Only those who are prepared to die, or who don't know of death yet, can escape my power."

"Ghkk..." Amadeus grunted in pain. "Damn you, shinigami!" Shin stepped on and over the spike he drove through the Hollow's chest and began walking down the road.

"Stay there" Shin ordered "and don't die. I need to ask you something soon." Shin marched, ignoring the palpable hated glare that Amadeus was giving him, and went to check on Jin. Jin rolled himself over onto his back and breathed heavily of the sky. His blades were gone already, retreating inside his body once more, and his chest was dented where the staff connected with it. Shin stopped and stood over Jin, casting a black shadow across his face. Jin looked up and grinned.

"Hi, Death!" Jin greeted happily. "Is this heaven?"

"Nope" Shin answered with a smile. "This is a road. It's made of dirt. You're not quite done fighting yet, you know. He's still alive...somewhat."

"Oh" Jin said. He tried to get up but started groaning in pain as he did. Shin could hear his joints creaking from where he stood, and paid him all his attention by mistake. He took a blind eye to Amadeus, who was quickly recovering. He had silently pushed himself up through his stake and was regenerating the hole in his chest with a visible speed. Muscles and vessels and fleshy patches were regrown and melded together as his Hollow regeneration accelerated him to near perfect condition. Shin was helping Jin, a man a full foot taller than him, up to his feet while Amadeus aimed his pal at them both. The energy gathered from deep within him and his flesh started to bubble.

_I will teach you_ Amadeus growled _not to mess with a supreme power!_ The bubbles of his flesh turned to razor-sharps spears and spikes that formed in his grip. Shin finally felt the power, the murderous intent, and turned around, abandoning Jin to defend he and himself. When he saw the attack forming his grip became tense and the metal of his weapon became cold. Death started to fill him. He could see no alternative but to face the attack and no way out of the pain to come but to die...so he smiled and prepared to block his best.

The clouds began moving again, covering the sun for just a brief moment. The blue sky around them kept the light brightly echoing the verdant greens of the distant, rolling forests and the deep and distant browns of the mountains. The world seemed to be peaceful, a contrast to the panic and dread filling it all over from the constant war, but peace seemed to resonate especially strong in the vicinity of Shin Kenpachi. Amadeus stood watching with wide eyes as his hand, plump and pointy with deadly ends for the attack, spun around in the air with a trail of blood leaving its severed wrist. Another shinigami came with a golden claw and swiped the arm off with a speed that the world could not keep up with. Even as he landed he seemed to be still arriving from the forest as a blast of wind followed him.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, adjusting Suichi's weight over his shoulder. "You guys can't do anything without me, can ya?" Amadeus started to growl. Shin's smile left him, and now he was yet again a visage of death. Hoji took a step in, brought his bladed fingers together, and delivered a straight chop down. The wind carried his attack and **cut Amadeus from shoulder to foot.** The Hollow was split perfectly in half, his mask staying intact the whole time. Hoji drew his arm back and clutched a tight fist. Wind started whipping and roaring around the golden blades as he grinned his excited, dastardly grin.

"_Tstsumaki-TE!!!!_" he called. He punched forward, opened his hand and threw a tornado at the hollow. It opened up as a tunnel, snaking through the air above the road, picking up rocks and shrubs and the chopped down trees from nearby, obliterating the Hollow in a vacuum of wind and debris. The power of the Tiger was unleashed and Amadeus was blown away with the powerful winds. The battle was won, at the minimal expense of the destroyed road and the better part of over a dozen trees. Still, with only such small losses, Hoji stood with his fist on his hip and Suichi over his shoulder with a cocky grin. "Tch. He wasn't that strong." Hoji felt a sharp pain at his head and fell onto his stomach almost instantly.

"Fool!" Shin chided, keeping the blunt end of his scythe on Hoji's head to keep him on the ground. He pushed at it and buried Hoji's face in the dirt more and more to reinforce his disappointment. "I had a question for him, and Jin wasn't done with him yet! Why'd you interrupt!?"

"It was a Hollow!" Hoji shouted. "Why not kill it!?"

"It wasn't a normal Hollow!" Shin corrected. "It was an Adjuchas! You didn't know that!?"

"What's it matter!?" Hoji argued as Jin finally got up to sit on the road and look at the sky. "It was a Hollow at some point, right!? That's just as bad!!!" Jin looked up at the sky, all blue and beautiful, and smiled.

"I missed this..." Jin said in wonderment. "This sky..."


	75. Battle at the Unohana Manor

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The Unohana Manor was beginning the preparations for its night guard. Their seventh consecutive day on high alert as they awaited for Shin's return with the missing orphan and their seventh consecutive day guarding against the invading horrors of the night. Hollows of all types and sizes, most of which were merely incapacitated and examined by Rei herself, would come in the shadows of the dark night to take away the weaker souls for food. It had gotten so bad that even Rei herself had to raise her sword and fight more than once, and all of this had been linked to one thing: Shin. His presence and his energy, particularly the energy from his first awakening, had drawn an abundance of Hollows to the manor.

It was Death that these monsters craved. That utter blackness, the anti-chromatic veil that hovered around Shin like a protective cloud in the sky, it was attractive to the monsters from beyond. They wanted to see that darkness for themselves and came in throes and legions to find it, more often than not being led by an evolved Adjuchas who carried with him some higher form of weaponry like a club or a crudely fashioned sword. All this information and research was delightful for Rei to come by but the injures grew each night. It wouldn't be long until an attack left more than just wounds in the guards...

"My lady" Telly said as she slid in on her feet, the extreme rush of panic overcoming her. "There is still no sign of Shin Kenpachi or his traveling companions! We must gather up another guard force for the night..."

"Very well" Rei somberly obliged. She stood up and grasped the handle of her sword with a dramatic clacking of the blade. Telly looked up and shot to her feet, ready to protest, but the eyes of her lady were too far determined to be fought with. "I shall take guard again tonight." Her resolve was palpable.

"But my lady" Telly began "you've been missing too much sleep. It isn't healthy at all! Please reconsider, stay in bed, research the specimens we have, but don't fight! We beg you!"

"Telly" Rei softly began, freezing the girl with her kindness. "You should get some rest, too. You've been exerting yourself inordinately during your guard."

"...yes my lady" Telly said hypnotically. Rei's kindness, her gentle motherly voice, was something that couldn't be fought. Telly just let her leave for the front gate, no more arguments to make, and then hung her head in defeat as she went through the halls. She met up with Natsumo halfway to her quarters and ran her head softly into her chest. Natsumo naturally recoiled, especially because Telly was still walking into her, and pushed her away.

"What's wrong with you!?" Natsumo demanded, holding her shoulders. Telly made a few mock sobs and looked up with her mouth agape in a nervous smile and her eyes pressed and sealed with tears.

"Lady Unohana...scares me..." she admitted.

"Is that all?" Natsumo demanded with a disgusted look. She started to shake Telly violently, her voice vibrating in time with the tremors. "You goofy girl! You don't stand up to her! What kind of stupid thoughts go on in that yellow head of yours!?" Their quarrel was merely incidental. The true conflict would come as the sun set. A gathering of guards, men who worked specifically for such a thing, had gathered to defend all the walls and halls of the manor from whatever arcane manner of attack came their way. Rei stood dead center, watching over the locked gates that had been marred by the desperate claw marks and signs of struggle that had led to the injuries and fights over the past few nights.

Rei's face had that same gentle air about it as it always did, but it still seemed somber. Knowing how merciless these Hollows were becoming, she felt that it was only a matter of time before she saw someone be unjustly devoured. The guards around her, all of them in some miniscule form of uniform to signify their allegiance, stood impatiently waiting for the battle to start. Not mercenaries but true soldiers abandoned by their country, whether it didn't need them or whether they country had already fallen. These men made their home here and it was a home they would defend.

"Hey" one man, a bandage wrapped around his head and crossing over the bridge of his nose, began. "I just thought of something."

"What?" the man he spoke to, one who wore gauze as a bandanna, replied in annoyance.

"What if Shin died out there?" he asked. "You know, it's a pretty dangerous place to be carrying a kid. Maybe he didn't make it back."

"Then we wouldn't have these Hollow problems, would we?" the soldier snapped. "That guy's the cause of all this, and as troublesome as it is, I gotta say it's nice to be fighting again."

"But you could die!" a woman with her neck wrapped in a pure-white cotton choker exclaimed. "What kind of man is joyful over potentially dying!?"

"A real man!" the soldier proclaimed. "I live to fight and fight to survive, but if I die in battle I'll be happy knowing that there's something powerful to challenge the stronger warriors out there! My death will just help others to become strong!"

"That's a very depressing thought" the man said.

"It's how warrior like me think" the soldier said, tapping his blade on his shoulder. "That's how Shin and Hoji think. Those guys are the strongest warriors I've ever met. If they died...and I get to fight their killer...**man, that'd be awesome!**" He had startled the girl with his excitement over dying but the man had retreated in fear to another side of the guard line. Rei's stare stayed fixed on the gates. The sun cast an orange blanket across the sky splotched with the small, dirty-gray clouds here and there that all drifted into the encroaching blackness.

A monster howled somewhere in the distance, a beastly and hollow scream of battle. It was accompanied by many others, an army of terrible demons from worlds and places unknown. The Hollows readied themselves to attack. Rei drew out her sword and held it in lazily at her side while the rest of the guards prepared themselves as best they could with as much enthusiasm and protectionism as they could muster. The battle would begin again tonight, just as it had the night before.

* * *

Their panting voices and hissing huffs filled the voided forest with an animistic intensity. The leaves all shook on their branches, quivering in fear as the monsters rushed through the trees on their hands and feet. Masked beasts with glaring eyes and gnashing, flat teeth, bony white skin and the occasional short row of horns arcing across their backs. Monsters all, hungry for strength and souls. They all encroached upon the same point, the hallowed Hollow proof Unohana manor where so many Hollows had already gone to die.

"Kill the head bitch!" one Hollow shouted to his comrades. "If she dies the rest will give up!"

"We'll eat her alive!" another growled.

_**GAOOOOOOONH!!!!!**_ The Hollow army cried, a fierce shriek of battle that resonated above the forest trees and far across the rolling hills that hid the mansion. Finally, after so much running, they found their way onto a path carved by the spiritual denizens of the realm and began their inhuman sprinting toward their objective, the front gates.

"Smash them down!" a Hollow commanded. Without hesitation the Hollows that charged forward picked up their speed and smashed their shoulders into the gate. It did not fall, but the weak creaking of the aged wood was a sign that it had given significant way to their force. Another batch of Hollows made a dash for the gate as the first parted to make way for them. These Hollows were the true chargers, all of them huge with thick, brutish masks, all of them elite in sheer strength. They blasted through the gate, sending shards of wooden shrapnel flying at the shinigami who stood in their way. Rei only glared at them sadly, lives that were unfortunately due to end soon.

"ATTACK!!!" A commanding shinigami called. The rest of the guards drew their swords that weren't already drawn and dashed forward in a defensive force. The Hollow's fought as best they could against the overwhelming odds, swinging their heavy and hefty arms to and fro, trying to catch a tiny shinigami with their attacks. The shinigami of the Unohana manor were quick and nimble. They weren't the kind to be hit by such slow attacks. They were veterans! The one enthusiastic, war-faced soldier with the bandana of bandages went dashing past the line of bulky Hollows and reached the back ranks of the weaker, reserve Hollows.

"HA!" he shouted, slicing one's head in half. The arms of the others, those close by the one he just ended, all came down swiftly to deliver attempted blows to his head. He brought his sword up, clutched tightly in both hands, and blocked them all. A cloud of greedy hands hovered just over his head. He held them there while two stomping feet neared his position. He grunted and tried to push them off but they were intent on keeping him in his place.

"What a brash move" a Hollow's voice said. He had heard few Hollow voices before, this man, but he knew this one was different from others. This was the voice of some ghostly woman. He tried to look past the angry, scathing masks of the beasts around him, all of them wide in the jaw and thin in the scalp, but he could only stand to feel her presence, a punishing pressure. "So young...a valiant soul, a misguided soul. A warrior in his prime. I wonder what a soul like yours tastes like...?"

The soldier was getting frustrated with his own disability, so he let the Hollows press him down and he slipped out form under them, sliding between the bow-legged stance of one and decapitating it just before making a swift retreat. He turned to see the leading, hungry Hollow behind him, but when he tried he was stunned by a shocking wave of pure pressure and a Hollow wielding an ax for a hand came up to him with its naturally smiling mask.

"Seems we've got an excited one" the Hollow lowed. The soldier became full of panic and fear. He knew his head was lost.

_That's it, I guess_ he thought in his final moments. _I'm dead. I've let Unohana down...myself down. I'm nothing but a weakling...damn. Shin Kenpachi wouldn't be in this kind of state at all..._ Just as he had made term with his own weakness, just as he accepted death, death seemed to reject him and forced him to live. The pressure was relieved of him and a loud, powerful thud was heard as the huge ax-armed Hollow fell to the ground, clutching the bleeding stub of an arm that used to bear a bladed ax. Rei Unohana stood above the soldier and gave him a hand to rise up to his feet. He accepted it and rose before her, grateful yet angry at his own incompetence.

"Forgive me, madam" he said with a bow. "I rushed ahead against orders...but the leader, I think I've found her."

"I see" Rei said, looking beyond him. She began walking, ignoring the soldier as he continued pouring his heart out.

"I'm sorry!" he continued. "I thought I could handle it, but I could only kill two Hollows! And I know how much you resent us killing them, but it was all in self-defense. There were ten or more of them trying to kill me at once, and I had to defend myself somehow, so I had to kill them! They weren't even injured. It was an unfair fight!!!" It was now that he looked up and then around to his sides to acknowledge that Rei was no longer holding him to the obligation of showing his honor. Then he looked over his shoulder and saw her measuring the power of the Hollow leader down the path with her steely nerve and calm eyes.

"So" Rei began, "an Adjuchas class Hollow. I haven't seen one of you in quite a long while."

"Oh?" the female Hollow hummed. It was a tall and thin Hollow with an unmistakably feminine form with a coat of white scales running all down its body to its three-clawed feet. She resembled, mostly, a lizard with her body and form and even had a tail that fanned out with a fin running from its tip to her masked head. Her mask was pointed out with a sharp snout and her jaws were filled with razor-sharp teeth and sharply angled eye holes that glowed with a ravenous shade of red. Her nostrils were slits in the skull and many bony horns frilled out from her forehead to create a sort of crown. "I don't believe we've met yet, deary. I am _**Radeorul Sinesta**_, one of the greater Hollows in charge of the _Sinesta_ forces."

"Sinesta?" Rei asked politely. "Why, is that something like a family name? I didn't think Hollows could have children."

"It is a nest" she explained. "A place where powerful Hollows like myself congregate to form a stronger alliance and fight against the barbaric forces that hunt down other Hollows for their own amusement or growth. We are a mutual group of Hollows who exist so that we may become stronger together."

"Why yes" Rei began. "We have things like that here too. We have hundreds of thousands of shinigami all working towards one goal in unity, and there are many groups like that all fighting one another for supremacy. There are also groups, like mine, who unite to protect those who can no longer fight in such wars, and those who have lost the people closest to them in the war. I suppose that is what my 'nest' is for, a refuge for the weakest people that don't wish to fight."

"Then this shall be easy for me" Radeorul said. She revealed her fingers, long and thin, and then let slide through their tips the steely razor blades that dwelt just under her scaly skin. Five long, sharp blades for slicing, six thick clawed toes for rending, a mouth full of tiny daggers for gnashing and ripping and tearing apart. A true monster, a queen of monsters, if there was one to be had. Rei took a solemn face and grasped lightly the hilt of her blade, ready to regretfully spill unworthy blood.

* * *

The shinigami guards still held strong back at the front gate. The Hollows continued their uncoordinated attacks on the guards with an impatient aggression. Most of the front-line bulky Hollows had been eliminated, leaving way for the smaller and more agile Hollows to charge in and intercept the shinigami, thus allowing the larger Hollows the freedom of movement that had been previously restricted. It was a tied battle for a short amount of time. Then, from outside the gate,m carrying a huge makeshift weapon, came that soldier once more. He held over his shoulder the ax arm of the Hollow that nearly killed him just before lady Rei came to his rescue, and he wielded it with a devious smile.

"MOVE IT! MOVE IT! MOVE IIIT!!!" he roared as he made his mad rush to his comrades. The choker-girl and the nose-bandaged man both disengaged their enemies and watched him charge in with total abandon for his life, an utterly grim descent from any order into a chaotic power they couldn't comprehend. He grabbed the ax arm by the exposed bone, then by the hilt of his sword which he stabbed into it for a better grip, and swung hard with a powerful grunt. The Hollows he hit froze as he returned to the ground, tearing up the dirt and dust as his slid on his heavy feet to a stop.

The Hollows he defeated were sliced apart with nasty, jagged remains fluttering and draining of blood in the breeze just before dissolving entirely into that strange blackness that all Hollows knew. The foolishly brave soldier stood back up and stared spinning his giant weapon around in circles above his head, preparing another series of attacks on the remaining hollows. The limber and athletic Hollows weren't as keen on simply dying as the larger, less mobile ones were, and went in too attack.

A shadow of dancing cloth appeared on the roof, hidden by the clouded moonlight. She drew her blade above her head and aimed with her hand down at the ground. A black-haired beauty with piercing, objective eyes. Natsumo with her sword, ready to release. She took out a slowly drawn breath and began to gather herself, her energies, for her release.

"Devour the night's shadows" she began in incantation. "Open your maw and swallow the world..." With the lines she spoke a mystic smoke picked up around her and each word made the sword push closer to her flat, aiming hand. The shinigami below began fighting a losing battle. They had no shikai, they couldn't keep up with the unrelenting force of the umpteen Hollows that came so viciously from every dark corner of the night. Even the brave warrior swinging the dismembered limb of one more powerful beast found himself on a path leading to defeat. "Engulf the wicked, smash them apart!" Her sword now sank into the back of her palm and fused with it, rippling out with a raw color of energy. "Snap! _**Hitonomi no WANI!!!**_"

An explosive release caught the attention of all under that night sky. Natsumo stood at its epicenter, her delicate, dark hair uncurling from its bun and blowing freely behind her head. She leaped form the roof to the ground at the gate and prepared to engage the startled, awing enemies with her weapon. **Twin gauntlets, darkest gray with aqua blue stripes ****on both sides**** lined with sharp, studded black spikes.** Her hands were free from the deadly-looking bracers themselves and coated **in a layer of rough, dark-green scales.** Her hair dangled before her eyes, just for a moment, then a Hollow died. It was torn apart, as if some great-mouthed beast descended and tore it piece from piece, and the only sign of a battle was Natsumo standing behind it, a tense chin and scowling lip, her arms both straight down and fiercely tense from her apparent action that went unseen in its glorious speed.

"Natsumo!" the girl shouted in admiration.

"It's mistress Natsumo!" the less manic man exclaimed. "She's come to save us!"

"Hmph" the warrior gruffed. He had missed the entire spectacle. He and Natsumo met eyes, she looking at him and the dusty remains of the Hollow he had just expertly vanquished as it dissipated behind him. "Show off. I bet if _I_ had a sword I'd have already used it!" That tension was quickly forgotten as even more howling Hollows came up from beyond the gate, ready to attack, but not ready to die. Natsumo jumped up and drew her arm back for a punch. When she threw it, and it lander, the Hollow whom she had hit exploded into a cloud of blackness that quickly disappeared between the worlds.

"This is a destructive power" she said "that is like no other. Carrying the elemental forces of both Earth and Water, the gauntlets of pure destruction, _Hitonomi no Wani!_" She slid her feet back a bit, brought one arm across her chest, and then pointed with her index and middle finger over at a group of Hollows. Then she beckoned them with an arrogant grin and murderous eyes. Her wrath was unleashed!

* * *

Hitonomi no Wani: Bite of the Crocodile


	76. Take it off, Rip it up!

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Natsumo engaged multiple Hollows, all with her arrogant glare and gauntlets equipped. The first to charge on double-kneed legs with a furry mane around its oddly rat-shaped skull made a pounce, intending to claw Natsumo with its sharp nails. She sidestepped it with a flash step and smashed it with a quick motion of her arm. It impacted off the ground, spun around from the motion and landed in a building pool of its own blood. Natsumo jumped over and landed on the Hollow's face, feet daintily curled to fit on the contours of its mask. Another Hollow charged in a rage, head first with arms following, and only received a stern punch to the face.

"Hoooh!!!" Natsumo shouted. She had stunned the mighty-sized Hollow in mid-air and had drawn both her arms back. She let out a sharp breath of air with each punch she threw, and she threw them in such rapid succession that eventually they became blurred together. Then, once her final punch eas thrown, she kept her fist planted on the Hollow's undented mask and grinned. "_**Kanketsusen!**_" Suddenly the Hollow erupted with a violent blast of energy, all transferred through her punches, and was torn to shreds. The only part that remained was its mask, which blocked the raining body parts that spread out in all directions, then faded away along with the Hollow's obliterated body. She smiled. "I told you, this force is not a common, blatantly destructive weapon. This is destruction at an elegant level!"

"She just blew him up" one Hollow remarked to another "and she calls herself elegant!?"

"That's ironic" the other Hollow agreed. "I suppose she's also gentle and lady-like too! HAHAHAHA!!!"

"GUAHAHAHA!!!" The Hollows had sealed their own death warrants. Natsumo's thin eyebrows twitched over her steely, narrow eyes. She made a flash step, punched both of them in their faces, and reappeared in a low crouch with her arms crossed in front of her body around her knees. She threw them apart, letting the metal clack against itself, and shouted once more

"_Kanketsusen!_" The Hollows had their heads blown apart and they dissolved into blackness again. She stood up and looked back with a great, stern glare that stunned the other Hollows. "Anyone else care to say anything about me?"

"No!" a Hollow shouted fearfully. "Spare me! I'm sorry! I don't want to explode!"

"**FINE!!! DIE ANYWAY!!!**" From behind the strong, thick-headed warrior wielding a detached Hollow's ax-bladed arm cleaved the pleading Hollow in two, crashing the ax into the ground, and then carrying the swing through to flip himself over. Now his blade and the Hollow's bone rested on his shoulder as he dug the blade out of the ground and stared forward with a nasty grin of blood-lust. He shocked a few Hollows with fear, giving Natsumo an opening to engage. She jumped up and gave a fierce uppercut to one, sending its body straight up into the air and its mask cracked and breaking from the chin up. Once she landed and gathered all the wrath of the Hollows around her, she posed and set herself up for a tighter counter-attack defense.

"Kill her!" a Hollow growled. "And him too!" The Hollows still remaining, small and large alike, charged in and away from their other targets, leaving the weaker or injured shinigami time to retreat or regroup and try a better strategy. They'd gone through this before, it was nothing new nor problematic for them. They just had to react quickly. Natsumo channeled her destructive force into her fists and fought the Hollows off with quick and precise punches and back-hands.

When one charged in, diving low for her legs, she grabbed it with her leather-bound fingers and thrust it into the ground, then spun herself around and punched it upside-down until it blew apart and dissipated like the rest. Then she went on fighting, grabbing a Hollow and keeping it under her arm while pounding another over and over. The Hollow she had bound tried to grab for her face but she dug her scaled fingers into its skull and gave it a mighty headbutt followed by a mask-splitting kick.

The soldier, meanwhile, resorted to sheer, brute force tactics of swinging his new-made weapon around as rapidly and dangerously as he could to intimidate and possible cut down as many Hollows as he could. "Come on, come on, CAHM AAAHN!!!" he shouted with spite. "Charge on in and meet your death!"

"Moron" a Hollow mocked. "Not all of us are here because of our physical strength!" That Hollow, lean and thin with a pointy mask of horns ending in a crescent shaped chin, straightened its back and put its arms to its wide chest. It tore open its own chest and revealed an array of small holes connected to organic tubes and veins running over its shoulders to its back and its arms where two more holes were present. "_**Bombardeo Sinesta**_ has the power to level any structure from up to one-hundred meters! HAHAHA!!!"

"Retreat!" the other Hollows around the soldier's range called. "Go and help fight the girl one! Bombardeo can handle this scrap himself!" The soldier was getting curious now, as exhibited by the slowing of his weapon to a stop before him.

"Oi" the soldier said, "how come you've got a name?"

"Eh?" Bombardeo asked. "Why shouldn't I have a name? Who said I didn't have a name!?" Bombardeo pointed its arms and all the holed in its opened chest forward, right at the shinigami, and began charging them with a strange, dark-red energy. "This is a power usually reserved for only the most powerful of Hollows, the Menos Grande, the Adjuchas and the ranks beyond even that! This is our ultimate weapon! Prepare yourself, foolish shinigami, for my _CERO!!!_" The soldier, even in his unwise and brash youth, could tell a fatal attack apart from any other one. He was ready to abandon himself and rush in to stop it, but then he realized his position.

_Damn_ he thought. _The manor's right behind me...isn't it?_ Indeed, as he was seeing the broken gate wall beyond the Hollow, which was right across the front courtyard from the main building itself. Now he had no choice. He lifted the massive weapon from the ground and licked his lips. His eyes flashed with a heroic resolve, resonating out as a manic rush of energy. "I've got no choice then, I _**will **_**stop you, MONSTER!!!**" The soldier rushed in with his giant ax above, ready to strike down from the night sky and rend the earth again...

* * *

As the fighting up above went on, the infinitely patient and polite Rei Unohana sheathed her sword with a smile. All the Hollows that had surrounded and guarded the regal Adjuchas Radeorul were dead and vanishing swiftly into nothingness. All of them had died at the same time, from the same strike, under the same seemingly uncaring moon. Radeorul had been irked into a seething rage. Her claws were clutched and unclutched with anger, her mouth twisted in a wrathful sneer, her eyes twitching with rage through the slots of her mask, all her anger being directed as pressure at an uncaring Rei.

"You bitch" Radeorul growled. "How dare you!?" Rei simply looked up from the ground with her lady-like smile and widened it to a more welcoming degree. "How dare you strike them down so coldly!?"

"I" Rei began "was simply defending my home, and the many other who live there. You can understand that, can't you? Do you Hollows not suffer the attacks of other on your nest? Do you not defend against those attacks?"

"For the last time" Radeorul lowed, stirring her voice up into a devious growl, "**you and I are NOTHING ALIKE!!!**" The Adjuchas pounced with astounding speed, reaching out with her flashing, razor-sharp claws to rip Rei's pretty head from her shoulders. The fangs of her mouth under the jaws of her mask parted widely as she roared a distant, hollow roar. Rei's feet parted. Her hand moved to the hilt of her blade.

Without changing her emotions at all she attacked, so quickly that even the light of the sky defied to keep up with her. She simply skipped through space, sheathing her sword gently with one arm, while Radeorul watched her own fingers dissect from her hand and turn inward at her own masked face. She gasped, used her superior speed, and landed before the darts slashed her. Now bleeding from each sliced stub she groaned and flipped herself around, prepared to defend from the ground with her feet.

"You fight to conquer" Rei began "only when you don't fight to survive. We shinigami are no different, for we are all descended from the same source of spiritual energy, the very same species. We are both brought to existence through humans, but through very different means." Radeorul sensed no danger, no immediate attack imminent, and got back up to wait for her fingers to slowly rebuild themselves. "Shinigami represent one side of a human's spirituality, the more empathetic, peace-craving and intelligent side, while the Hollows born from human anger and emotion bear the darker, more sinister animal side."

"...Bitch..." Radeorul lowed. Rei gasped and daintily smiled in shame, turning away with her hands over her mouth.

"Although" Rei said, quickly correcting herself, "that's not to say that all Hollows are unintelligent, nor that all shinigami are saintly." Radeorul's fingers were repaired now and she refused to continue waiting. She charged in with a terrible rage and stomped down just at Rei's own feet. Rei turned, her face still holding its same expression of politeness and feminine grace, and dodged one sweeping clawing swipe after another as the Hollow ripped and tore the air around her.

"DIE!" Radeorul bellowed. "DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!" Rei simply stepped and turned to avoid the random attacks, keeping one hand on her blade the whole time. She was passively avoiding Radeorul, increasing her rage unknowingly, and rapidly enhancing the frequency of her attacks. Rei jumped away, out of her range, and began slowly drawing her sword, unmarred by blood as it had been for so many years. Radeorul jumped forward and threw her whole body into a powerful, driving swipe from Rei's head to her feet. Her claws didn't get to reach their mark.

They just spun around with the rest of her detached arm in the air while Rei sheathed her sword once more. The arm hit the ground with a thump, twitched for a moment, trying to find its own missing shoulder, and then disappeared into the void. Radeorul straightened her back and watched it happen, all while Rei walked many steps behind her up the hill.

"There is one thing" Rei said "that is different about us...and that is that I am much more calm than you are. Please, if you care for the remainder of your forces, call off the attack and tell any other Hollows that attempt to storm my manor to cease trying. There is only sadness and loss in war, and I hate to think of being a part of one any longer..." Rei began her slow walk away, leaving the Adjuchas to look at the space where her arm had been and smile. It was a mad smile, accompanied with mad eyes that curled up with her sharp-cheeked grin. She began to twitch from her scale-coated chest, jittery breaths going in and out, all building up to a laughter that climbed the sky and depressed the earth around her. Rei turned around, watching neutrally, as the Adjuchas' pressure built exponentially. Then, sensing her own crushing demise, Rei retreated at full speed and reappeared in a flash at her own broken gates.

"You think you're stronger than me" Radeorul called "just because you're calm? You think you've won because you shook me a little!? Oh, you weak, foolish shinigami..." Radeorul reached back for her tail, took it in her remaining clawed hand, and tore it off without a second thought of motion of flinching. "Although...I am willing to admit this..." She took the tips of her claws and placed them at her mask, **easily removing the upper jaw and cranial area,** leaving only the lower jaw that stayed close to her chin as if it were the exposed part of her true jaw. She then threw the mask down and clutched her tail tightly, tearing it apart in a flurry of blood leaving...**a blade.**

"I too...can fight like you...**shinigami...**" Rei Unohana, in her infinite patience and calmness, was stunned. Her eyes were shot wide open. She had observed, for once in a recorded century, **an Arrancar...**

* * *

The lesser forces all clashed up above, on the top of the hill, where the Unohana Manor was so precariously built into the flat side of a sloping, rolling mountain base. Natsumo and the eager soldier continued fighting ceaselessly against their foes. Natsumo overcame the endless hordes of Hollows that charged in with such reckless disregard while the soldier, brash and brave, was pummeling the face of Bombardeo Sinesta with his heel.

"Stop that!" Bombardeo whined in between stomps. "You bastard! You sadist! Tormentor!"

"Damn straight!" the soldier shouted. He had finally had enough for now and, with his sword drawn up high, prepared to end the fight with a clean cut to the Hollow's neck. "I guess you've learned your lesson, eh? Don't brag about an attack that takes **fifteen straight minutes to charge!**" The soldier killed Bombardeo, slicing his mask in half and then cutting off his head. He hopped off the Hollow and stabbed his sword back into the meat of the disarmed ax-arm from the unarmed Hollow down the hill and grabbed the jutting bone as a second handle.

"Well, that was easy" he said to himself. He looked over at the conglomerated mass of Hollows, all scrapping to fight with the powerful Natsumo who continued beating them back with very little effort. Her fists were charged with a nasty energy that poured out from her fists. One Hollow charged in body-first, hoping to surprise her and grab her with its thick, muscular arms. She caught it with her fists, pressing into its chest, and her gauntlets shot forward and sent a destructive torrent of energy into the Hollow. Another Hollow blown to bits. The rest of them were covered in the disgusting, tattered bile and bits of their former comrades blown apart, but they all continued charging in, unrelenting against the ever-calm and disciplined Natsumo.

"**HUA-YAAAAHHH!!!!**" the soldier shouted. He had caught the attention of one Hollow, a tall and wide one, which had its head severed as soon as it turned to see him. He drove the ax down nearly half-way through the Hollow, stopping after dropping through its hole, and kicked himself into a rapid spinning in the air. The ax blade sliced at the heads of the Hollows as he descended slowly, the force of his rotation keeping him up through a gust of spiraling air. Natsumo looked up with a rigidly flat expression and clapped her hands together. Upon slowly parting them, a bubble formed.

"_**Suihou-Hou!"**_ At Natsumo's incantation she snapped her hands back together, launching the bubble she formed just past the spinning soldier, who didn't notice it, and let it explode high up in the air. A resounding, shocking thunder from the attack sounded out and shook the ground, which Natsumo grabbed hold of to keep herself up. The rest of the Hollows started to stumble and fall over, some of them being tossed up and down by the shaking force of the ground. "Now..." Natsumo growled as she grabbed at the dirt. She planted her feet, stabilizing a small portion of the ground, and lifted up a huge boulder above her head, straining to keep it there. Her body was being slowly crushed under the very weight she had extracted and her head sank down into her chest. She stepped forward and heaved the rock at the downed Hollows, smashing them as the ground collapsed on top of them and buried them.

_Damn it!_ Natsumo thought as she gasped for breath. _I'm still...not nearly strong enough to use such an attack. I just need a little more time to train..._ Natsumo's thoughts were cut short by the approach of a huge Hollow from behind, wielding solid stone hammers in in place of regular fists.

"Your finished, girly!" the wide-mouthed, small headed Hollow called. Natsumo couldn't argue. Right now, thanks to the strain, her arms wouldn't budge. Still, she was prepared to take her hit and retaliate in whatever manner she could, but salvation finally landed and came to her aid. As the hammer-fists dove down for a head-splitting strike, the manic swinging of the ax-arm wielding soldier finally caught a fortunate target. The hammers, both, were cleaved apart and sent flying, tumbling from the release of blood, far past Natsumo and into two more Hollows who died instantly.

"Phew!" the cocky soldier exclaimed as he approached. Finally, his ax was well worn and useless to him, so he tossed it aside and swung the blood off of his sword. "That was a close one, miss Natsumo."

"Hey!" Natsumo exclaimed. "I don't remember asking for your help! Get out of here! Defend the manor!"

"Oh, but miss" the soldier said, licking his lips, "aren't you aware? There isn't anything to defend against..." Natsumo, surprised and somewhat disbelieving, looked around. **All the Hollows were gone,** blown away as black dust in an ethereal wind. "**We killed them all, just you and I!" **There was something shaking about his extreme satisfaction in that fact, something unsettling in his voice that caused her discomfort.

"Then..." Natsumo began, lacking real words to say, "get rid of this one! He's still here, and you haven't disposed of him properly yet!" The Hollow gave a low, deathly groan. Natsumo looked up and saw its face split across the nostrils, perfectly straight, and watched its head separate from itself slowly as it fell down and dissolved into darkness. Natsumo straightened herself up, twitched and individually tested her fingers again, and deactivated her release. She sheathed her sword with shaky, tired hands and looked at the soldier who twirled his sword with a very relaxed, leaning pose and sheathed it as well.

"What is you name...?" Natsumo asked. The soldier turned his narrow eyes under his spiked, untamed hair and smiled at her.

"**Katana**" he said. Natsumo blinked at his name, such a novel one that she'd never though to hear before. **"Katana Netami** is my name..." Natsumo just stared at him for a moment, making him uncomfortably draw back with a step. "What?"

"Your name..." Natsumo unclearly began, "...is...katana? As in...a sword?"

"Grrr...." Katana growled. "Yes, my name is a sword, alright!" Obviously a sore-spot topic to address. Still, at its absurdity, Natsumo couldn't help but grin and blush...

* * *

The pathway that led out of the dark, deep forest gave way now to a new warrior. A large man, standing as tall as any great warrior with arms thicker than his sleeves would permit, the reason his robe was torn at the sleeves, and wearing a coat of tightly-woven, powerfully crafted chain-mail. He wore not the traditional garb of shinigami over his legs but instead sported a manly skirt of deep red and black interlacing lines, under which he wore plate-mail leggings that covered his legs down to his chain-mailed feet.

Over his shoulders was a billowing mantle made of delicate silk that extended behind him into a cloudy cape of deep lavender. His hair dropped down to his shoulder, black and dull. He did not walk from the darkness, for such a thing for a warrior like this would be unworthy. He rode, instead, on the back of a mighty masked beast that sported a wide, thick skull and smoothly curved horns that extended straight out. A Hollow in the form of a mighty, red-eyed horse!

"_**HNNNEEEEAAAAHH!!!!**_" the beast neighed. It bucked up and flailed its bone-white legs and death-blue hooves and hopped forward while its rider stayed on by pulling on the reigns that tied around the beast's powerful, solid chest.

"Woah!" the deep, resounding warrior called. "Waoh, Bucephalus, woah!" The horse calmed itself and dropped to its front hooves again, shaking its head and snorting out smoke. "Hahahahaha!!" the warrior laughed as he brought his rugged hand to pet the beast's mane in calming strokes. "You're just as eager to fight as me! HAHAHA!!! Don't worry. There's plenty of food for you up there..." The warrior grabbed at a crude, leather scabbard around his back and attached his mighty palm to a sword handle. "...and for me, there shall be plenty of **fighting!**" The man drew his sword with a singing metal sigh and bucked his horse up. Its hollow neighing reached all the way to the sky and the moon, which had already set itself overhead to give light to the battle that had already nearly ended...

* * *

Kanketsusen: Geyser  
Bombardeo: Bombardment (Spanish)  
Suihou-Hou: Bubble (also Nothing) Cannon  
Bucephalus: Ox-Head (Ancient Greek. Alexander the Great's horse.)


	77. The Coming of Cane

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

With a snarling hiss, Radeorul charged forward with her sword up high and her eyes glaring white at Rei. It seemed the shinigami was still stunned by the sudden realization of her mistake. Her underestimation was indeed a costly one. It almost distracted her from blocking entirely. Raderul's sword was caught with a clash upon the metal of Rei's own sword, held to guard her head from splitting. Now, with twitching might, Radeorul tried hard to press down. Rei stepped back, away from the sword entirely, and lowered it so that the tip passed over her smiling, maidenly face.

"I'm sorry" Rei said. "I mistook you for an Adjuchas earlier. I shouldn't have guessed your power to be so low...although, of the Arrancar I have seen before, your pressure certainly _is_ the lowest, I'm afraid." Her stinging words, said through a still grinning mouth and piteous eyes, did not phase the Hollow. Radeorul stomped forward and made a stab for Rei's face. The shinigami retreated a flash-step back as the Hollow charged forward with her sword once more.

A blind swing down and into the ground while Rei slipped by to the side, her own sword slicing through the air. Radeorul blocked with her hardened tail-fin and turned around with a snap for another swing. This time Rei could only duck, not avoid, and lost a few stray strands of hair in her effort. Radeorul reeled her leg back for a kick and swung a deep, punting leg at Rei who rolled around to her sword-armed side.

Rei shot up from her feet in a stab that was blocked and deflected. Rei landed ready to defend and blocked the numerous incoming attacks from her enemy. Radeorul finally managed to stun Rei and spun around to slap her with her tail. Rei took the blow and rolled through the air until she was stopped by, once again, Radeorul's tail. It impacted on her back and slammed her into the ground. Then it snaked its way around her neck and lifted her back up to powerlessly watch Radeorul's haughty glare and twitching stub of an arm.

"You didn't think" Radeorul began "that all of my power can come from my pressure alone, did you?" Suddenly, with a wet burst, a new arm was sprouted from Radeorul's shoulder. The remainder of the arm that was there was shred to bloody pieces and scattered around. The lizard beast took her bladed claws up to her mouth and nursingly licked her fingers clean with a seductive forked tongue. Rei noticed how much leaner and thick her arm was compared to before.

"Indeed, shinigami, your eyes are working right. Once a limb of mine is cut off it will regenerate, and not only that but it will come back to me **twice as powerful!**" Rei knew what trouble she was in and steeled her nerves and abdomen muscles as hard as she could. The Arrancar took a sliding step in with her foot and gave a thrusting punch to Rei's gut. The lady was reeled with pain and coughed out a mouthful of spit in response. Radeorul's tail gripped her tight, wound her up and then tossed her away, down the hill like living garbage.

"Hmmm..." Radeorul growled. "I can see you're at your limits...or at least someplace near there. I can only hope that you realize what a foolish match this turned out to be. I am still more powerful than you, regardless of your speed and apparent stealthy powers. You are simply no match for me at all, weakling Rei! HUHUHUHUUU!!!" That haughty laughter was the last straw. Rei stood back up, her sword in both hands, her eyes focused away, a glaring and emotionless stiffness over her face.

Rei took her sword now in one hand, placed the other open palm at her chest in a prayer form, and swung her sword out to her side, humming and holding a single, peaceful note. Radeorul recognized the oddity of her stance and of her swirling, gathering energies. She was performing what the Hollows from her nest remembered to be a release, a 'Shikai'. Radeorul growled loudly and charged forward, not intending to let the shinigami attempt any sort of maneuver that could turn the battle her way. As she neared Rei a blasting wave of pressure dropped on her. The Arrancar was paralyzed, barely able to stand let alone charge. Rei closed her eyes and made a wide circle with her sword, moving it slowly in front of her, creating a glowing white path where the sword's blade flowed.

"Forces of light, gathering to face the darkness" she began in a trance. "Gather together and cut through pain and suffering. Abolish the wicked injuries of yesterday, make what was once gone whole again today. _**Mujitsuyu.**_" With her peaceful incantation over, the glowing, white path the sword had cut in the air began to shine brighter and brighter. Radeorul growled under the severe pressure, bearing all her fangs and her thinly-slit vertical pupil. She was ready to break from the tension, the want to pounce and tear apart. Her animistic nature overcame her and she broke through the pressure field with a wicked roaring.

"**BIIIIIIIITCH DIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!!"** Rei only opened a calm eye halfway at the Arrancar. She brought her sword into her praying hand and the metal of her sword was burst apart into a glistening cloud of misty dew drops. The blade was touched and absorbed by the shimmering white halo and reformed with a flash. Rei's sword was now an echo of what it once was, a sword now colored white and shining. A miraculous looking instrument. Radeorul ignored it and made a desperate swipe for her head. Rei appeared several steps behind her with her sword drawn down at her side, held in relaxed and calm hands.

"Our powers" Rei said "aren't too different either, it seems..." Radeorul landed with a thud and turned with her sword still gripped in her clawed hand. "We both have the power to heal...only, **I am not so selfish...**"

* * *

"What did you say!?" Radeorul bellowed. Rei only stared at her from the dark corner of her eye, not willing to turn and give her full face. The Arrancar sneered and began laughing. "You're a pathetic one, aren't you. You think a little release like that is going to stop me? You're wrong, shinigami! I will-" Radeorul aimed her left arm up to point at Rei to increase the impact of her mocking. However, even though the command seemed to reach her arm and fingers, she could not see it. Her arm didn't follow itself up. **It was detached again, floating in the air and slowly simmering into ash.** Radeorul looked over at her shoulder and saw a perfectly healed stub covered in her natural scales instead of left gaping open and bleeding.

"I heal others" Rei plainly said, poising her sword over her shoulder and at the Arrancar. "However, if there is no injury, you can't heal yourself. Now you are stuck with that stub, unable to regenerate it again." Rei expected more rage from the Arrancar, but instead she was treated to a hissing, mad laughter that built and built until it was echoed up to the sky.

"**EEHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAA!!!!**" Such brazen madness and withheld rage forced Rei to take a more defensive stance. Even with her shining white sword of supreme holy power, she had to make a stand if she wanted to survive and meet with her own deeply cared for tenants and guards that still fought up above at the gates.

"Lady Unohana!" Natsumo called as she raced into scene, her sword sheathed in its scabbard with Katana running close behind. They both approached the border of honorable distance to their lady and stopped on the mark to prostrate themselves before her. "We have defended the manor. The rest of the staff awaits your return. Can we be of any assistance?" Katana looked up and fell over backwards at the sight of the grinning, armless Arrancar.

"Holy..." Katana began, stopping himself from uttering any obscenities that may offend his gracious lady so close by. "Wha, what is that? A Hollow?" Natsumo rose to her feet and reached behind her head.

"It is an Arrancar" she said, "is it not my lady?"

"It is" Rei affirmed. Natsumo set her hair up in a bun with two broad strands tied over it to form a cross from behind, giving it support. Katan got up to his feet as well and placed an eager hand on his sword. The rest of the guard stayed up at the manor on the top of the sloped but watched down below, anxious for their lady's victory. "Her name is Radeorul Sinesta. She possesses great powers of regeneration at present."

"Do you need assistance, my lady?" Natsumo asked. Katana didn't ask. He just drew his sword and made a lurching step forward. Rei gave the matter a moment of thought, but her monstrous enemy was unwilling to wait for her.

_No_ Rei thought. _Help is not necessary. This is my duty..._ As she opened her eyes from her thoughtful trance she found herself clashing swords with the vicious Arrancar. She made a swift upward-to-downward attack that threw Radeorul's sword up and gave her a thick, glowing slice down her torso. Stunned, Radeorul began toppling over. Rei took her sword in one hand to her side and extended a closed fist forward. As the light dimmed on Radeorul's torso she found that there was not cut and no pain whatsoever. Rei opened her palm and let out a blast of her pressure in an explosive wave. The Arrancar tumbled head over foot until it finally caught the ground with the extended claws of her fingers and the grinding of her taloned toes against the cold dirt. She was poised over, back arched and legs tense, exactly like an animal preparing to pounce or charge.

"Bitch..." Radeorul lowed. She twirled her sword around her head a few times and then charged, confident once more of her abilities in battle. Rei intercepted her attack, deflected it, stabbed her and threw her away with the same attack as before. Radeorul recovered in the air and ducked her head down so her tail reached over her back. A glowing ball began to grow at the tip of her finned tail. Rei recognized the energy in an instant and turned to the warriors behind her.

"Run!" Rei commanded. Natsumo acknowledged in an instant. Katana was slower on the draw, wanting to see the attack come to full fruition, but ran away none the less.

"Who says all my power" Radeorul began "has to be in one place? I may be a selfish healer...**but I'm infinitely more destructive than you are!!!**" The ball began to hum out a fearful resonance, a deep and hollow roaring of energy. _Cero_. Rei parted her feet and held her sword in both hands, blade parallel to the ground at her hip. She glared up at the growing attack and wrapped her fingers tighter around the hilt of her glowing sword. She was going to deflect it, a direct competition between the darkness and the light! Finally the black sphere surrounded by bloody-red energy was ready and with a rumbling roar it parted through the air straight at Rei. Her sword moved with the killing grace of the moon across the sky and sliced into the attack. The Cero hit the ground and blasted up a cloud of dust. The shinigami were left to watch in horror from above as Radeorul landed unharmed, licking her lips at the plume of smoke that rose from the ground...

* * *

The ground rumbled beneath the black hooves as the unstoppable Bucephalus charged out of the woods and up the slope with its rider on its back grinning and glaring at the battle ahead. His sword slowly drew from its sheathe across his back and flashed in the night, a flat and broad beast carved with runes from tip to handle along the inside curve of the blade. It was held by his rugged, calloused hand wrapped in a thin and worn cloth. As the beastly Hollow galloped along the clouds seemed to move overhead accordingly. The light was dimmed as the moon was covered by the veil of the thick, creamy clouds high in the sky.

"Almost there now, my companion!" the rider declared with a flashing grin over his rugged, manly face. "Almost there, and just in time!" Despite the merciful time given, Rei hadn't stirred from the still smoking crater. The wisps of dusty gray and earthen brown clouded together in a frantic meshing plume that continued climbing skyward. Radeorul stood at the border of the crater, sniffing the cloudy air until her slit nostrils were tickled by the dust and she was forced to sneeze.

"He-Choo!" she sneezed, wiping at her nose with one of her bladed fingers. The laceration on her upper lip healed instantly, leaving her perfect, horrific glare unmarred by any marks once more. "That's right. Stay down, you turgid little whore!"

"Lady Unohana!" a guard shouted in horror. "She...I can't sense her pressure! She must be dead!"

"That's impossible!" Natsumo denied. "Our Lady Unohana is not weak, but she is resourceful. She must have hidden her presence from us so that we couldn't reveal her position!"

"How smart of you" Radeorul said. Natsumo's eyes went wide and her face was flushed pale. She was gripped from behind by sharp claws and forced off her feet. The Hollow turned her around and lifted her up to her eye level to leer her down with a seductive grin across her upper lip and lower nail-toothed jaw. "So then, as one of her closest servants, you should be able to pick up on her no matter how slight her pressure is?" Natsumo struggled to whisper profanities but her opportunity to insult the monster was cut short by the advance of Katana. He made an ineffective strike at Radeorul's back. She was none too pleased but linient enough to let him get away with a simple swipe of her tail.

"You're all so weak" she uttered "compared to me. All of you are nothing but fodder for me and my army."

"What army?" Natsumo asked. "Look around. Do you see any remains of your little force?" Natsumo was chocked into submission and, once silent, thrown to the ground to cough and breathe through her strained and injured throat.

"You think that was it?" Radeorul said haughtily. "I wouldn't send my entire army on my first siege. I am no fool! Back at my nest in Hueco Mundo I have a tremendous army of blood-thirsty Hollows and Adjuchas waiting for my signal to attack! Your feeble shinigami defense may prove useful against some thirty-odd Hollows, but against an entire army, hundreds of Hollows all stronger and larger than the one's you've already faced, what will you do except die!? You're hope is lost, little shinigami! All there is left for you here is to die! HAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"I see" Rei said. "Thank you." Appearing in a flash-step, using a transcendental speed unmatched by any spiritual eye, from one place in hiding to thrusting her sword through the Arrancar's chest, just above her hole. Radeorul was forced down to her knees by Rei's powerful, glowing blade. The wound gave her no pain but the fact that such a weapon was still thrust inside her proved to be a mortyifying thought that allowed her to be so easily guided. At any moment that sword could drift up and sever her face in half, a blow she couldn't recover no matter how she tried.

"Why" Radeorul hissed. "Why aren't you dead...?" Rei moved in close and talked in a whisper so only the Arrancar could hear.

"When you launched your Cero" Rei began "I was able to negate it with my sword. However, knowing you would not relent to continue attacking me once my guard was down, I hid my pressure and ducked into the trees, moving up the hill while you waited and made my way up onto the gates, still undetected, so I could drop down in an instant and surprise you."

"You cheating bitch!!!" Radeorul hissed. Rei turned the sword around in her chest and pointed the sharpened white blade upwards. Radeorul knew what would follow and looked down with dread.

"I am grateful for what you've told me" Rei said. "Now I know to prepare against even more Hollow attacks in the future. However, it would be selfish of me to only take such information without giving something back. You are one of the few beings to hear the incantation for my shikai release." Rei stopped drifting her sword up just as she reached Radeorul's chin and leaned her in even closer than before. "**I have already mastered my Bankai release. Saying the same incantation for shikai is unnecessary.**" That final revelation sent Radeorul into a pit of despair she could never hope to recover. The fact that she fought against such a powerful opponent for so long made her pleased just as the white flash that drifted between her eyes in a beautiful swipe filled her with grief.

Although Rei's attack made no cut, the fear of death still sent Radeorul out of consciousness and straight down to the ground. The battle was over...or so it seemed.

* * *

"Thank goodness" Natsumo sighed "you are alright, my lady. Truth be told, I was becoming a bit worried for myself." Rei came up close to Natsumo, snapping her determined subordinate to attention. Rei smiled and took a gentle hand to Natsumo's bruise-red neck and sent a pulse of healing energy into it. Natsumo took in a warm breath and as she breathed it out her neck was absolved of all pain. Rei took her hand back and folded both hands into her sleeves.

"You fought excellently, Natsumo" Rei praised. "I am glad you decided to embrace your sword's destructive powers as a youth when you had the chance."

"Anything to service you" Natsumo said with a deep bow. Rei gave her a meager bow as well and turned to face the rest of the watch. No one had been injured tonight, at least not as badly as last time. She was pleased. The entire estate was safe for yet another day.

A sudden shocking wave of pressure and a powerful, low rumbling that shook the air. At the tip of Radeorul's erect tail a Cero ball formed, this one much less stable and growing at a highly accelerated rate. The Arrancar raised up her face from the dirt and glared down Rei, who was frozen in place.

"Hahaha!" she laughed. "I'll kill you yet, Rei! I'll pour all of my energy into this final Cero, and create an explosion that will obliterate your whole, flimsy little building! **You'll be dead!!! ALL OF YOU!!!**" Things seemed grim now. No one could move through the pressure, not even Rei. She could, however, see through it and realize that it was not just one field but two that seemed to keep her fast to the ground. A mountain of a shadow appeared behind Radeorul as she climbed up to her claws again. Just as she raggedly made her last stand she was pierced through the back with a black spear barbed with dark-iron studs around its round tip. A new hole opened up as the summit of the spear peaked through her chest, leaving the spikes around the stabbing end still inside her body.

"**HUUUAAAAAAAANNNNHHHH!!!!!**" Bucephalus roared.

"**EEERRRYAAAAAAAHHH!!!!"** Roared its rider. The Cero had already dissolved like a snowflake, powerless remnants of its light floating around like pieces of a shattered snowflake. The Arrancar was helplessly thrust off her feet, into the air and was then spun around by a quick twist of the warrior's wrist. The spear shred her insides apart and then seemed to suck them in. The spear was spun so many times and so quickly that wherever it touched on Radeorul she was sucked away into the blackness until nothing, not even her shattered mask, was left. Then, with an earth-shaking stomp, Bucephalus stopped as its owner spun the deadly black spear over his head. With a flash it reverted to its sword form, the runes along its inner curve glowing one at a time, and then it was returned to its leathery sheathe.

The man dismounted to the ground, standing tall over all the gathered and awing guards, an arrogant and victorious smile across his proud, warrior face. Rei gave him a curious look, then changed her view to a deeply analytical apathetic stare.

"DUDE!" Katana exclaimed. "That was badass! That was amazing! Who the hell are you!?"

"Yes" Rei agreed, cutting Katana off with a much more flat voice. "Pray tell...just who are you?" The man swiped his broad thumb across his nose and took in a short breath.

"I just figured you could use a bit of help" he explained "so I rode up here based on the rumors that a certain sword-wild man had left you undefended. My name is **Carroll Cane**, I hail from the lands far to the North of here, across the Fissure, and I am here to help you survive another sleepless night of Hollow fighting!"

Rei had nothing to say to him. She just let the wind move the clouds so the moonlight could shine again and glare off of his markedly pale skin. He looked nearly like a Hollow, especially in comparison to the smoke-bellowing one he rode in on. "...are you now...?" Rei lowed, keeping her voice from reaching his ears. Even the greatest of gifts can cause us the greatest harm. Such a limerick crossed Rei's mind the moment she met this man, and for good reason...

* * *

Mujitsuyu: Innocent Dew (Mujitsu=Innocent, Tsuyu=dew)


	78. Animosity of a Gracious Stranger

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The night left in its silent, dark march and gave way to the cloudy, misty morning that later broke into an orange-glowing rain across the land. The giving sun illuminated each drop of heavenly water as it made the effort to regrow the beaten ground that had been marred and scared by the Hollows and shinigami last night. Within the Unohana Manor, the vast and lordly estate of the mistress Rei, the guards all slept in heavy trances and dreamed of their victory and the terrors they fought. Rei, meanwhile, sacrificed her sleep temporarily to take her new guard to task over breakfast. She sat across a short, beautifully carved and constructed table from he, who leaned against his own weight with a friendly, sleep-deprived smile.

"Manzenryuu...?" Rei said, repeating an earlier part of their conversation. "Yes, I have heard of that. 'One who walks an aimless path'. I've already met such a practitioner."

"Have you now?" Carroll said enthusiastically. "I'd bet he was a wild man, to raise a sword to a skillful warrior like you."

"We never fought in contempt" Rei said as Carroll took a deep drink of his wide, deep sake cup. A drink so early was his way of combating the angst and tension he gathered right after the kill he made in battle. "Only once in good will. Shin Kenpachi is his name." Carroll spat and erupted his sake bowl all over his face, making it glisten with the pale wine coating his already pale skin.

"**THE **Shin Kenpachi!?" he exclaimed. Rei looked at him in passive surprise.

"You've heard of him?" she asked.

"That man's a bastard of a legend!" Carroll said with an eager grin on his face. He leaned down to the table and struck up an odd and suspicious cord with Rei. He had a strange mixture of excitement, like a boy fawning after the mention of his idol, and a villainous scowl for the mad contempt of hearing such a name. He looked happy to kill at that moment, but noticing Rei's discomfort he leaned back and sighed to straighten his face to a plain grin. "Among the wanderers like I, he's nothing short of an ultimatum. He's set a new standard for wandering and aimless campaigning. Why I heard he took down the entire Kyuuhiouto clan out of **boredom!** HAHAHAHA!!! If that isn't sheer aimlessness, a pure heart of the Manzenryuu warrior, I don't know what is!"

"He did say that" Rei said. Prompting Carroll to purse his lips in shock. He sipped more sake just to spit it out to the side in surprise, not wanting his emphasis to be wasted on mere facial expressions alone. Rei just stared at him and slowly ate her food with the womanly grace that so undeniably set the mood. The wind and calm, cooling rains seemed to sound peacefully as instruments to her graceful movements. Carroll, a pure warrior, could only observe her practice in careful eating as 'dainty' and ate fists full of food and mouths full of sake at a time.

"About my offer" he said upon completing his meal and feeling fully rejuvenated. Rei looked up at him, still a plate or so more of food to eat herself. "I am more than willing to take the nightly guard alone, if it would be no problem for you to have me here. I only ask for the bare minimum of supplies and lodging, nothing that I wouldn't be able to pay you back. And, as for Bucephalus, I would wish that you not study him without me being present. I said he was tame, but he really only trusts me to be around him."

Rei deliberated his sound and planned offer over the taste of her seasoned rice and garnished, freshly cooked fish. The rain settled down and gave way to the gentle breezes that rolled throughout the rolling forests and low, sloping hills, calming the world around the large estate and its gardens. She set down her chopsticks and folded her hands gently in her lap. With a calm smile she looked up and gave him a short, honorable bow. "I would be grateful if you would assist us."

"Great!" Carrol exclaimed. Rei rose her head to see that he had already hopped up and was now stridding out of the room. "If it's no trouble to you, I'd like to get some sleep to stay rested for the night. Could you send someone to escort me to my room, if I have one?"

"Most certainly" Rei said. She flagged down one of the waiting women who sat along the wall and had her escort the tall and muscular Cane to the room that Shin had left empty and mostly unused. The only thing that would need to be replaced was the bed, as Carroll seemed a bit too tall to use the same one the infamous Kenpachi did. Rei finished her meal and sipped of her soothing tea as her waiting women cleared the table away promptly after she stood from it and left for the hallway. Telly toed close to her side.

"My Lady" Telly began, "don't you think his behavior was a bit...rude?"

"It's fine" Rei said, continuing her walk. Telly stopped in the hall and just thought.

_Even if he was a lot scarier than this guy_ Telly mused _Shin and Hoji at least had the manners to thank us for the meal before running out and fighting in the garden. And Suichi always had impeccable manners. Just because this guy is a Manzenryuu doesn't mean he gets to abuse Lady Unohana's hospitality with his rudeness! I should confront him about this at once, so our fair lady isn't embarrassed any further!_ With her mind so sternly made up Telly made a dash to follow after Cane, who was already being settled into his room with an extra-wide mattress and blanket at his disposal.

"Excuse me" Telly said, interrupting the girls who were working to get his bed neatly in place. Carroll turned around and let himself get confronted. Telly looked up at him. He wasn't too menacing in this morning light, but the sharp and handsome features of his face surely shone through with a good bit more strength. Telly blushed and became speechless for a moment, then shook off the feeling and reinitiated her challenge. "I would appreciate it if you would show a some restrain when eating with Lady Unohana, and you should be more polite to her now that she's agreed to take you in."

"Ah, is that so?" Carroll asked with a light, breathy voice. He moved forward and leaned down with the bending of his knees to confront Telly, face to handsome, rugged, manly face. "I'm sorry about that, young miss. I'll make sure that I correct my behavior by tomorrow morning." Telly just stuttered until he left her space, then sighed and giggled.

"Th-thank you!" she said with a wave. "Um...good bye. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything either!" Carroll waved to her over his shoulder and then turned back around to the center of his own room. Telly skipped away with her hands on her cheeks to block her blushing. _Ooohhh! He...he's amazing! I can't believe he was so kind to me!_As Carroll slept the manor went about its regular, daily business. Food was prepared for the tenants and orphans, the guards kept calm about their new, less dangerous routine and the caretakers of the garden celebrated the succession of days where their work was all in lack due to the absence of Shin and Hoji to tear up their precious yard. Now Rei was the only proper shinigami sitting in the heavenly Eden while the gardeners all worked with the delicate precision to cut leaves from branches and level the hedges and bushes of the more robustly grown garden. The grass was all perfectly leveled off in the ascending pattern that they artistically preferred and the garden was back within its delicate equilibrium between plain, flat grass and the most artistically intrinsic and beauteous topiary that could be carved from their swords.

* * *

"Lady Unohana" a gardener said, interrupting Rei from her flower viewing on the stone bench under the shade of her willow tree. She looked up from the small pond of budding lotus flowers floating on lily pads with a grin at the bowing man. "We have completed our jobs and will report back inside to take our breaks."

"Very well" she said to dismiss him. The rest of the gardeners went back inside with skips in their steps. It seemed, that while some suffered, many were glad to be rid of Shin's presence here. Rei stayed on the bordering balance of either side. The Hollows were attracted to the absence of his Death pressure but the guards were upset that he had left without them knowing it would happen. The staff was less fearful to move about now that he wasn't stalking the halls, but to his defense he never intended to scare or startle anyone when he went about his business. He never even cared about the seemingly terrified impressions he left in people that passed by him during the days he was there.

Rei observed one lotus blossom spreading out suddenly in the noon sunlight, radiating a pure white with petals fading into an earthly brown at the tips. Rei closed her eyes and took in the feeling of beauty the flower gave her, then took a deep breath to smell the air around her. It resonated and saturated her senses with life, the blooming life of her garden that attracted so many people in the past. She began to drift off to the century previous when she was but the daughter of a profound woman, existing in her shadow, and the body she found grown over with vines and flowers in the garden, a still breathing woman equipped with some destructive weapons on her arms.

"My lady" Natsumo said, snapping Rei back to reality. She saw Natsumo's bunned black hair as she took a knee to greet her esteemed benefactor and then rose up to her feet. Natsumo stood up as well, keeping from eye contact out of respect but keeping her nervous expression apparent. "I have heard the news. You employed that man with the spear to take up the night guard alone. Are you certain that it is a wise choice to leave the defense of the entire manor up to a single man?" Rei let a calm wind blow between them, then answered her.

"He is a strong man" she said. "I believe that he will prove himself in battle." Natsumo, while staying respectful, answered back with a scowl of defiance.

"Forgive me for disagreeing" she began "but strength alone won't protect the manor, especially not from a single man who can be easily overwhelmed or taken down in a major battle! We simply can't risk the night to a single man while there are so many defenseless and injured already inside!"

"I have already agreed" Rei said simply. She saw Natsumo getting infuriated and shaking her knotted fist at her side. However, it was rage that couldn't be subsided by gentle words or calm speeches alone. "It is not a decision for you to be involved in. Whatever the case, I have already finalized the plan. You will be taken off the night guard like everyone else." Natsumo looked up to try and respond at the gentle, stern words of her lady but saw her eyes had been closed and her head cast to the side. She understood that the decision was not one she had taken lightly. Natsumo felt ashamed and cast her head down.

"I am sorry, my lady" she apologized. "I rose my voice to you in anger."

"It's alright, Natsumo" Rei said. "We must simply have faith." While Natsumo stayed in her bow, furrowing her brow, Rei moved past her against the cool spring wind.

_Faith..._ Natsumo thought. _I abandoned faith a long time ago, my lady..._ Rei left Natsumo to sulk in the garden and be whisked away by its natural beauty. When she opened her eyes and discovered that she was alone she immediately turned her glare to the pond where a lotus blossom was shutting itself as if carelessly floated by on the softly rippling water. The sight of so many shut flowers did nothing to warm or lift her heart. The sorrow of seeing such lonely things trapped yet freely wandering along the waves only reminded her of the life that she had left her faith in.

Now, in this new life of hers, she found no faith in other warriors. Only empty promises and false hopes. On top of all that, however, there was the suspicion that she felt, the unbridled hostility that she seemed to harbor for that man, Carroll Cane. His very presence made her uneasy, and even knowing that he slept somewhere in the same place that she did made it hard to concentrate. Rei had already left and the day was still dragging on, so she decided to take her concerns to someone who would undoubtedly listen.

* * *

"Don't tell me" Natsumo began with a flat face and a twitching brow "you've already fallen for him, Telly?" Telly looked up with her mouth full of trailing noodles wet with broth and blinked. She slurped them up quickly and gulped them down before she started laughing and waving her hand.

"Ahahaha!" she laughed. "Don't be silly, Natsumo-dear! You're just being paranoid! You always get hot over strangers. You're like a watch dog!" Telly went back to slurping while Natsumo turned around and muttered, under her breath,

"Better than being a plain bitch like you."

"WHAT!?" Telly roared, slamming her bowl to the table she sat at. "You wanna repeat that, flatsie!?" Flatsie. A clever insulting name to prod at Natsumo's insecurity over her small breasts. She was flush faced now and her nostrils flared open with anger. She snapped around and confronted the seething Telly with forehead against forehead.

"Take out your sword" Natsumo growled, stepping up onto the table. Telly rolled up her left sleeve and stomped up onto the table as well. "I'll obliterate you!"

"Huhuhu..." a girl giggled away from the confronting couple. "Glad to see the Hoodlum Spirit is still lingering around!" Natsumo and Telly grinded their heads together as they simultaneously turned to face the girl's giggling notion.

"Hoodlum spirit?" Natsumo asked.

"Those guys, Shin and Hoji" another girl began "are always fighting across the table."

"Most of the time it devolves into a fight" another girl added "and they go straight outside with their swords."

"They're never angry afterwords, though" another girl remarked in a curious voice. "I guess guys can just fight all their problems out..."

"What's wrong with that...?" Natsumo asked. Telly turned her head, and Natsumo's by relation, back to eye her down.

"They're saying we look like Shin and Hoji" she said with upturned lips.

"So?" Natsumo asked. Telly retreated and sat back down, leaving Natsumo half-standing on the table alone until she shot back down to her seat as well.

"Psh" Telly scoffed. "I don't wanna be compared to those guys! They're evil and weird. And scary." Natsumo was chuckling to herself, covering her laughter with her hand. Telly turned to her and cocked an eyebrow at her suspicious laughter.

"You're definitely becoming Hoji" Natsumo said between the thin parting of her fingers. Telly fumed up and huffed out a hot sigh of defiance.

"Psh" she scoffed again. "No I'm-" That second scoff was caught and forced Natsumo's laughter to escalated into a full guffaw that forced her to buckle forward and clutch her stomach. Telly just huffed and glared away, venting her rage in a glower at the corner of the ceiling. Natsumo finished laughing, slicked her hair back and neatened her round bun with light, even pats. Perfectly serious, she re-confronted Telly.

"Tell me" she began in a completely neutral voice, "do you really trust Carroll Cane with your life?"

"Not again!" Telly exclaimed, defending her maiden's honor with waving arms and puffs of steam. "I told you I haven't fallen for him! It's in your head! It's all in your head, you unlovable-"

"Telly!" Natsumo sternly shouted. Telly sank back, realizing she was being completely serious now, and saw the distrust and anxiety in her face from simply addressing the subject. "I have a terrible feeling from him. Whenever I first saw him I felt nothing but dread. It's a distrustful aching that rings far more powerfully than what sensations I get from sensing Shin Kenpachi. Shin is a frightening man that I can trust. This Cane...**is not.**" Telly absorbed her serious demeanor and nodded.

She, too, felt what she felt. She had only just realized it now, but something about this Cane seemed to be amiss...

* * *

The night fell like a weight from the sky. Instead of clouds there were bright and sparkling stars to bridge the heavens. The moon was only partially full but shone down nonetheless with a world-illuminating glow. The pale reflection of dated silver painted the land in a demure shade of shadowy brightness. It was the eve of yet another Hollow attack, Rei knew. The pressure fields were scattered and greatly varied in size. The attack was much larger compared to the ones the manor had thus far faced. Although her trust in the defense was faithfully placed on the broad shoulders of Carroll Cane, who waited on his Hollow horseback at the open gate, a sense of curiosity forced her to watch from the window of a central watch tower.

Carroll was confident so much that he kept his sword still sheathed in its sleek leather strap across his back. His Hollow mate, Bucephalus, stomped the ground and kicked up the shattered rocks in bits of gravel. It snorted out smoke with ember glows coming from the nose-holes of its mask. Carroll grinned his wide grin across his sharp, pale face and gazed out into the forest before the gates.

"There's a lot of them" he said to his horse. "Bucephalus, you'll feast greatly tonight!" The Hollow bucked up and gave an air-shaking whinny, deep and hollow and ghastly that echoed out into the clear sky and over the mountains. It stomped back down and snorted out a billow more of smoke that drifted off to the side. Carroll was ecstatic and began slowly reaching up to his blade. The Hollows galloped faster through the woods, running on all fours some and others gliding across the ground in long, quick hops. Carroll palmed his blade and wrapped each finger, one by one, around the thick handle. Rei watched his motions with the utmost care and analysis. She wanted to see his method, witness first hand his skill from a pure disadvantage, so that she may determine his true worth as a warrior.

The first enemies came charging, running on all fours with their animistic maws of sharp teeth and wide foreheads growling and guiding their sleek, sinewy bodies. Cane kicked at his mount and charged forward. He drew his sword out as his steed gained speed and started spinning it, twirling it between his fingers.

"**Mutilate!**" he called, **"**_**NEGROARPOAR!!!**__" _With an explosion of dark energy his sword was transformed and continued to spin. A black blur of motion in his hand the thick handle had extended and broadened even further into a long, black shaft. The tip of the spear itself was barbed with random, gruesome spikes sticking out. His deadly weapon stopped over his head as he brought both hands to the end of its shaft.

The battle started with three dead Hollows and one with a crushed mask. With a single powerful swing of his weapon he smashed through the heads of three Hollows and slammed one far off to the side where it hit off a tree and dissolved before reaching the ground. Carroll chuckled maniacally while spinning his spear around at his side. Bucephalus kept charging autonomously forward toward the rest of the rushing Hollows. Carroll stopped spinning just as his mount veered to the side and stabbed his spear into the face of a Hollow. With a hole in its face the Hollow was defeated but Carroll still used it by picking its body up and throwing it forward. Bucephalus leaped onto the head of a Hollow, bursting the fragile mask and killing the small Hollow, while Carroll spun his spear over his head and switched hands with a quick downward swipe that smashed in yet another Hollow's head.

"Come on!" Carroll called. "Try if you dare! I'll obliterate you!!!" A roaring Hollow, taller than both Carroll and Bucephalus he rode on, came charging in with trunk-thick hooves and stretched out, muscular arms. Carroll stood up on his horse's back and grasped his spear with both hands. He began spinning the shaft around with quick whips of his wrists. The jagged spikes at its tip became gray blurs in the motion. His grin was the only solid object remaining on his constantly moving body. His eyes stunned the Hollow with evil and he stabbed a giant hole through its dark-green body. Bucephalus jumped through the hole as it began bleeding profusely on them both. Carroll stabbed up through the Hollow's head, his spear still spinning, and blew its mask into shrapnel.

"**RYAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!**" he roared. This whole bloody spectacle, and the gory display that followed was all watched by a horrified Rei. Her breath had been forced out of her within the moment of his release. The cloud of energy that formed that despicable weapon was so black that her pupils flashed when she saw it the first time.

_This energy_ she thought. _I've never seen anything so dark. It's an aura of **Darkness!**_The battle continued with Carroll making the Hollows look like timid, defenseless slaughter fodder. He ripped and tore and mutilated his way through the rank after rank of charging monsters, all the while displaying a menacing grin on his face...

* * *

And while Carroll Cane slaughtered the Hollows at the Unohana manor, Shin and his crew had taken to a cave for the night behind a waterfall to rest and count their new marks of battle. Compared to the situation at their 'home base', things were very calm for them.

"Gaaaghaghhghghaahghghugherglgl..."

"What the hell was that?" Hoji asked as he brought himself up from the ground. Jin was soaking his head in the cascading water while trying to talk, and the result was a loud, wet gurgling.

"GLLGLGLGLGLGLGG!!!" he shouted, waving his strong arms.

"He's drowning" Shin noted passively. He and Hoji both hopped up and pulled Jin away just in time for his to gasp and cough out some water. His red bangs were plastered onto his face and after catching his breath he stared at the water that continued to fall.

"That felt good" Jin said. Shin and Hoji let go of his arms and let him sit on the wet ground for a moment longer. "I...saw a fish!" He said with a childish tone and grin. He then laughed and crawled back under the waterfall while Shin and Hoji fought to pull him away in vain. Suichi held his sheathed sword at his chest and curled up in the corner.

"Why?" he lamented. "Why did we go the scenic route?"

"It's fun!" Shin defended with a strain of combat to pull Jin away.

"More combat opportunities!" Hoji added. Jin's head was recovered just long enough for him to add to the conversation.

"A fish hit my head!" he called. He then started laughing and lurching back forward, screaming through the water in a gurgling voice to call for more fish while Shin tried to use his sword to cut the water away from Jin's head. Hoji was kicking Jin in the chest, though in vain, to tempt him away. Suichi just curled up tighter to his sword.

"...why...?" Such questions, unfortunately, could not be answered.


	79. Black Weapon, Black Heart

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The morning ran into scene with its usual hot attitude, the sun casting a glare on everything that could reflect and receive light. The grounds of the Unohana manor never looked better in recent days. The Hollows never got past the front gate, all thanks to the powerful man sleeping in his room from a mild stupor of victory sake. The staff went about their lives as normally as possible, acting as if they had not a care in the world aside from the obvious duties they were expected to perform. Lady Unohana had made no mention of Cane's battle, of which she was the sole observer, and by her unusually demure and reserved attitude when approached about the man, the staff had begun to find their own suspicion for the wandering swordsman...

Still, it was safer this way, for everyone. No Hollows could penetrate his wall of a defense, as ruthless and bloody as it seemed to be. Rei knew it was better for the sake of all her workers and loyal servants to have a single strong warrior to defend than many weak ones who may end up injured or worse. It was an unspoken understanding that she didn't want anyone to die over protecting the manor unless it was her.

Natsumo carried a heavy bundle of bandages down the hall and passed by Telly who just took a leisurely stroll. They met eyes for a moment, then continued walking. A perfectly neutral air was between them for once. There wasn't any anger or even friendship between them at that moment, and some passing girls patrolling the halls made a note of it to be saved for later.

At dinner Carroll finally reemerged to feast. He sat with the warriors as they silently ate. He had been instructed earlier that it was rude to talk at the table unless invited by the hostess to do so, and he would rather not invoke the wrath of his gracious benefactor at the moment. The dinner was calm and sedated his rampant hunger to the point where he wished for a sparring partner to work himself out before the night fell.

"I'll do it!" Katana Netami exclaimed. Natsumo stared at him as he left with the stranger, a concerned scorn on her face. Regardless the brash young warrior followed the brave, powerful man out into the garden where they stood apart, showing their swords to each other.

"Alright" Katana began, "you may be strong enough to take on a bunch of stupid Hollows, but how are you at fighting actual enemies with their own swords?"

"Don't forget, kid" Carroll began, taking his broad sword into both hands for a better grip, "I _did_ slay that Arrancar when your lady was in dire straits!"

"You killed it from behind" Katana said with a flat face. "That's hardly a testament to your 'skills'."

"Hey now" Carroll said with a bead of sweat, "at least I helped, right?" Katana took on his bloody rampaging grin and glare and leaned back.

"Well whatever" Katana said. "I'm gonna go all out for you!" Katana blasted forward with his sword drawn down low and pointed up. He made a stab up at Carroll's head which the warrior leaned past and made a swing against. Katana hopped back from the swing and Carroll pressed, keeping his sword in front of him and making short, controlled chops to drive Katana away.

_He's got some impressive speed on that big weapon of his _Katana thought. He used his sword in both hands and made a full-body rotation swing to slash Carroll's sword away. Then, with the opening, he rushed in and prepared for a deep slash to Carroll's body. Carroll read the attacks, one by one, and dodged them as they came. He brought his sword in for another horizontal neck chop. Katana brought his sword high up with the blade drawn downward and blocked the attack. The force Carroll put into it with his thick arm and his taught hips forced Katana to slide away across the flat grass. Once he stopped he took his sword in one hand and jumped forward, all to the horror of the watching gardeners who bit on their own garb.

"Our poor grass" one sobbed.

"It took days to fix" another said, shielding his crying eyes, "and now it's about to be torn apart all over again!" One man in the back ranks began openly sobbing. Katana made a ground-dragging slash that kicked up a dusty string of grass at Carroll. The mighty warrior backed away and raised his guard up. Katana came in low and got in a solid, though shallow, stab. Carroll was shocked to see his guard so expertly manipulated and then reeled away in pain as Katana extended the cut with a clean swipe down.

"Heh!" Katana smirked as he twirled his sword at his side. "You're a lot of talk with no substance, aren't ya?" Carroll was still glaring down at his bleeding abs, the thin trails of blood drifting down to his kilt. He spun his sword over his head between his fingers and then made three vicious swipes at Katana. The attacks were as fast as they were unpredictably powerful and Kanata's sword rang with pain at each hit it took. His arms numbed almost instantly from the stress of blocking the attacks and he was left shaking and vulnerable to the glowing-eyed warrior that approached him. Katana tried to kick, but Carroll beat him to it, planting his armored foot squarely under his ribs and lifting him off the ground. Katana spat up a glob of spittle.

"**DIE!**" Carroll roared. He slammed the butt of his sword into Katana's back and blew him to the ground where he cratered the lush grass into dirt. Carroll then turned his blade down and thrust it near to his neck, the edge of the blade just scraping across the skin of his neck. Katana struggled to remain conscious. The pressure, and the pain, were both slowly killing him, and all he could do was hope that this merciless monster would have a bit of pity for the weak little warrior that he was. The sword was drawn back up slowly and sheathed behind his back again.

"I'm sorry about that" Carroll said, pulling Katana up and helping him stand. "I got a bit too into it, didn't I? You got a good attack in. Any deeper and I would be in trouble! You're good!" Katana looked up at Carroll's friendly, grinning face, and forced a grin out of himself.

"Thanks" Katana said. No matter how he stared he could only see the veil that this man wore, and he couldn't seem to recall the memories of that monster that had beaten him into the dirt and tried to kill him viciously...

* * *

"_**HNNNEEEAAAAAHH!!!!!"**_ Such was the roar of Bucephalus, Carroll's Hollow steed. It bucked and reeled wildly in the allotted room that Rei had designated as its stable, thrashing about and slamming its head against all the walls to find a weak point. It tried to chew at the floorboards in an attempt to tunnel away and it made monstrous leaps and hind-legged kicks to the ceiling but all in futility. The room was heavily reinforced with a sealing kido that was kept in check by a group of kido-specialist guards. They constantly poured their pressure out to keep the creature in.

It roared and neighed in its terrible, Hollow voice all the time, each night until dawn. The barrier had to be reinforced yet more as a sound-blocker so that the guards quartered in the wing could sleep. The monster was never calm unless its master was nearby, the terrific Carroll Cane. He would part the kido barrier for just a moment, slip in, and all would be calm. His horse would be as stoic and submissive as any horse would be under its master. It would even eat modestly from his hand, not at all trying to nip at his hand like any other Hollow would. This behavior intrigued Rei more than anything, and she requested to sit in upon the regular interaction between Hollow and shinigami.

She took her place in the corner, out of the way, behind an invisibility kido that Bucephalus couldn't penetrate. Carroll came in as he always did, with a swaggering step of haughty pride and his hands tightly clenching his hips. He held himself in a high air, a sheer act of confidence against the Hollow instincts within the best. He grinned and approached the creature. It trotted back and away from him. He stopped after it had retreated only a few steps and held out his hand. Bucephalus looked between the hand and the face, recognizing both in and instant, and brought its slimy green tongue from within its masked mouth to lick the calloused palm. Carroll grinned and approached again. This time Bucephalus showed no fear and accepted Carroll to stroke his mane.

Carroll displayed a proud grin of victory, one he had worn many times before. Rei observed it as a ritual between not a man and a beast but two adversaries in a duel. One enters submissive and scared, the other enters confident and mighty. The outcome of such a match would be obvious. With Bucephalus weak against the simplistic yet effective advances that Carroll displayed the match drew to an early close and Carroll, in his mercy, allowed his opponent to live for showing the restraint and submission that he wanted. Once Rei left she headed straight for her quarters and logged it all down in the lengthy scrolled pages of her research. Carroll came to call on her and pushed past her guards and went into her room.

"Lady Unohana!" Carroll exclaimed. Rei looked up with a start and set her brush down away from the page she wrote on. "I apologize for my rude entry, but there is something urgent that I must discuss with you!"

"Lady Unohana!" another voice called. Carroll turned to his side and showed her the guard who was hanging from his back and dangling about helplessly. His efforts to stop the man were obviously in vain, but he kept trying. "I also apologize for his rude entry. I was overwhelmed..."

"That is fine" Rei said gently. "Return to your post, please." He hopped down, bowed, and retreated from the room, leaving those two alone to talk. "And now, Sir Cane, what is it that requires my attention?"

"I have sensed a sinister energy lately" Carroll began "that comes from the nearby mountain. It is an aura unlike anything I have ever seen before. It may be a Hollow. I would request a change of duties for the course of this night."

"What sort of change?" Rei asked.

"I wish to hunt whatever Hollow is lurking in the hills" Carroll said with adamant determination "so that I may continue to protect the mansion from a blind-sided attack."

"How are you so certain the Hollow is hostile?" she asked. "It could very well be lost, in between worlds with no way of getting back."

"I doubt it" Carroll said. "There are so many beings here who are rich in spiritual energy, is that not the reason why this manor is constantly under attack? I have already seen such a sight in my wandering..." His attitude had apparently shifted. He was demure and burdened by some past nightmare that floated around his head like a dark cloud. "...when I was a child" he began, "my entire village was slaughtered by Hollows." Rei closed her eyes in sympathy. She had heard such a thing before, so many times, but it was always sad to hear.

"I woke up in the middle of the night" he continued "only to find that the houses around mine were burning and collapsing on their own weight. A group of Hollows, led by an Adjuchas I couldn't identify, had killed and eaten everyone only to burn down our houses with the Adjuchas's power. I tried to seek out my parents, both of whom were experienced shinigami, but when I went to their room I saw one of the monsters leaning over their bodies, **eating them and picking at their corpses!**" Rei clutched at her robe, keeping her hands at her lap to kindly listen to his story. "I've never forgotten that feeling of fear, that terrible pressure. I became a Manzenryuu so that I could hunt down the Hollows that destroyed my life and forced me into the wicked world without a family. This feeling...this pressure. Lady Unohana, I know it's true. It's him! **That Hollow! I have to kill it!**"

Rei sighed. It wasn't a sigh of any relief, but one of ever increased burden. Now she had to manage this travesty as well, topped with the myriad of innocent lives that lay vulnerable each night to the endless coming of Hollows from the woods. She stood and presented herself in as elegant a manner as she could.

"I will gather the guards" she said "and tell them to stay at the gate for tonight. You may hunt this Hollow, and any others that you may find. I hope you will return by morning."

"That I shall" Carroll said gratefully. He bowed low and Rei bowed as well. Then he left. From that point on the Unohana manor was, once more, on its own. Rei snapped her fingers to call for the guards and issued them with the task of rounding up the guard.

"We need a full legion at guard tonight" she warned. "Carroll Cane is leaving on a short expedition in the nearby hills."

"What!?" the guard who had attempted to stop him earlier exclaimed. "Wh...why?"

"It is something I feel he has to do" Rei explained. "Who am I to take away from what could be his destiny...?" The guards acknowledged their orders and left in sprints. Rei waited a few moment before turning around to the warrior who hid in her shadow, one dressed in a strange garb of **leather straps covered in symbols, leaving no space to see his skin beneath.** "Follow him. Do what you can to find out what he is up to" she said.

"Of course, my lady" the warrior, in his gentlemanly and elegant voice said. He rose up and gave her a sincere bow with a hand across his chest and an upturned wrist. "I will not let you down." He vanished. Rei went back to her notes thereafter, trusting everything to her people and bearing their burden of distrust.

_I only hope I'm making the right choice_ she thought. _The lives of many rest on my hands, and I can only hold so much blood before it starts to drain away..._

"They're stronger this time" Natsumo said. "The only reason they'd come in fewer numbers is because they don't need or don't have any more Hollows this strong to use. This may be their final assault."

"So they're going all out" Katana said with a smug scoff. "If this is their last ditch we should give them a loss to remember. That way they have something to mull over in Hell!!" Katana swung his sword down to signal his readiness. Natsumo turned to him and glared him out from the corners of her sharp eyes. He was stunned when he connected his gaze with hers, paralyzed under the geyser of pressure she emitted at him.

"Don't act so tough" Natsumo scolded. "You can die just as easily as they can, you know." She turned back around. Katana took her words to heart but externally scoffed and marched down the line to fight with someone who was less bitchy. He feared for his life just the same, but he didn't want to waste the energy to show it.

The clouds moved as thin, wispy lines across the night sky. The waning moon gave light to the forests that reflected from each leaf but didn't reveal the veins or the contouring lines of bark on each tree. The light was too dim to fully illuminate the world tonight. The Hollows rushed through the woods, staying out of shinigami vision and away from the beaten path that led to the Unohana gates. They were terribly animistic creatures all, most covered with fur that bustled around their Hollow holes and frayed at their bloodied claws. An army of monsters who went from kill to kill to preserve the fresh taste of blood and souls in their mouths.

Natsumo clapped her hands and slowly began to part them, forming a destructive, transparent orb between her palms. "_Suihou-hou!_" she called, tensing her fingers to grip the bubble lightly. She began to shrink it by pressing it down until it just barely fit between her hands that were brought together by the bound tips of her fingers. "Don't fight fair!" she called to the line of guards. "You know they won't if they get the chance. Kill one and help someone kill another. Don't stop until we're sure they're all dead or at the very least dying!"

"Got it!" Katana called, without a moment of hesitation. He grinned a nasty smirk and spun his blade back to tap onto his shoulder. He was getting anxious. Natsumo kept her concentration on her bubble, keeping it from bursting in her own hands, and waited with her piercing eye dead set on the open gate. The Hollows waited on the other side, out of sight, for their own perfect chance to strike. It was a deadlock of patience, and only the strongest will would win. However, the bloodthirsty instincts of the monstrous Hollows in the bush made it all the more difficult to maintain a patient air. One was clutching its mouth and using its steel-sharp teeth to gnaw at its own hands.

"Hey, Pigglia" another Hollow said to the frustrated one, "take it easy, alright? We're gonna kill them all, just like we're supposed to, but not until we're sure we've got the advantage."

"When's that?" the frantically voiced Pigglia asked.

"When the moon gets blocked" another Hollow with square eye holes in his tight humanoid mask said. "That way they have less light to work with."

"I can't wait that long" Pigglia said. "I need to go now! I can already feel it! The De-Evolution is catching up to me! I haven't eaten another Hollow in days! I'm bound to revert to a Gilian at any time...forever!!!"

"Just calm down" the former Hollow said, trying to wave away his worry. "You'll be alright. Shinigami have more spiritual pressure on them than most of the Hollows we've been eating anyway. Especially the ones with the fancy weapons."

"Kill them all" the square-eyed one said "and we'll divide up the bounty of bodies evenly."

"It's one kill, one body!" a Hollow roared from behind. "Urrraaagghh!!!! This is taking too long! I want to fight! I want to kill!!!"

"Don't get antsy with me, Rude" the square-eyed one said.

"**PIGYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!"** the furious Pigglia screeched. It leaped straight over the trees, clawed at the wall of the manor and slammed into the ground. It was emaciated in form, a tall and thin creature covered with short, pink hair and a mask with a wide spear-tipped snout and beady, gleaming eyes under a row of four thin, bladed horns. It wielded long, sharp claws on each finger and powerful animal-like hind legs that ended in wide, sharp claws. "**I'LL KILL YOU AAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!**"

"Attack!" Natsumo ordered. Rude was the next over the wall, coming in with his giant, muscular form descending along the wall's edge and his hoofed feet stomping in the ground, just in time to watch the attack begin. He started running for Pigglia but was stopped by what felt like a huge, killing pressure behind him. Natsumo opened her hands and let fly her attack, which sunk into Rude's chest and expanded with a blast so loud it shattered the clouds and made a crater over the explosive impact. Rude was decimated and Pigglia was blown away by the blast. In his blind, berserk rage he was also caught in an inescapable attack made by Katana and his head was severed down the middle.

"That's two!" Katana exclaimed, swinging the blood away. "I wonder how many we'll get to kill tonight..." He licked his lips in anticipation to find out. He was tempted to climb up that wall and being battle right on top of it, but upon seeing Natsumo's incredible display of power ended with her equally incredible calmness, he decided to stay with his group. A scolding from her would hurt more than any Hollow could...

* * *

Up in the hills that rolled above the Unohana manor a chilling and sinister figure stalked about with three equally terrible accomplices. It was a Hollow, an Adjuchas leading a small group of smaller Adjuchas, two full-grown men tall and thin down to its stretched, lanky muscles. It walked on stilted legs and three-taloned bird-like feet. Its hole was located dead in the center of its chest. It was bone-white with a six-point star on the back of its head. It's arms were long, thick, **wing-like extensions with rotted flesh webbing them together.** The points of its wings were dulled and worn from a life of use stabbing and scraping.

The three that walked with it stayed in the shadows that the villainous figure cast over them. Two were more humanoid in form, one almost perfectly so and the other with inhumanly round shoulders and abnormally wide forearms. The later had a mask with a horn protruding from the center of its forehead, the previous had a perfectly human skull mask. Then there was one that kept to the shadows so elegantly that it could not be seen, save for the **four glowing orbs **that bobbed with its motions of walking through the darkness.

"He's late" the shouldered one said in a raspy voice.

"No" the human one said in a lethargic voice. "He's here. He's behind us." The tall one stopped and turned around. The front of its face had a top row of sharp, gnarled fangs that all extended down over its incising bottom row. Its red eyes shone out through peculiarly angled holes, giving it a perpetual look of disdain. It had four nostril splits, two placed perfectly over the others, and on its forehead were two short horns that seemed to break out from within its own mask. It stepped to face the direction where Carroll Cane, riding on his Hollow Bucephalus, approached with great speed. At last he stopped, pulling on the reigns for his steed to halt, and jumped off with a bloody grin.

"I don't like that look he's got" the wide-shouldered one said.

"He won't attack us" the human one said, drawing his hands to wrap around his stomach and grip his sides. "If he did he'd die, though..." The Hollow in the darkness made a pleased, animal grunt and bobbed its head up and down rapidly. Carroll stopped a far enough distance to glare down at the smaller two and respectfully address the taller one.

"I'm glad I found you again" he said. "It's been quite a while since we worked together." The tall Hollow drew in a long breath and then spoke in a booming bass.

"Indeed" it said. "Such is the fate of the wanderer in purgatory. Eventually he shall meet **the Devil.**"

"And I'm lucky we hit it off right" Carroll said. "I've got the entire manor on lockdown like you requested. All that's left for you to do is swoop in and kill all the little bastards and motherless bitches while that gullible Rei turns a blind eye."

"Good" the Hollow hissed. "It is a fine night to dine..." It spread its wings and breathed out a loud, echoing hiss of breath. Feathers of bone white began sprouting rapidly and soon the frames of both wings were coated with light, lifting feathers. "**We leave at once!** Carroll, your role is not yet done. For your service to be complete, **you must kill the lady Unohana so that we may eat in peace."** There was no hesitation or even a glimpse of thought. Carroll mounted his horse and drew out his sword, quickly releasing it to its terrible harpoon state.

"Easy" he growled. The killer force left with an explosion of air to shake the trees and erupt the dust and dirt from the ground. The killer bird and its subordinates took to the air while Bucephalus rode the wave of wind with a Hollow roar. The bloody night was just beginning...

* * *

Natsumo was at the front of the league. She had anger that she wanted to fight out. She even came to the battle with her sword already released and her studded gauntlets already equipped. Katana Netami arrived as well, opting to have his entire upper body wrapped in white bandages instead of wearing his actual robes, and tapped his sword impatiently on his shoulder. The guards were gathered in the front courtyard between the manor itself and the thick, newly rebuilt stone walls. By Natsumo's orders the gate was left open so as to funnel the Hollows inside rather than fight where they had the potential advantage.

Telly took command of the night staff, regulating the flow of foot traffic through the halls and the delivery of the supplies that the men and women carried in haste to the proper places. She was in her element, dictating and commanding with incredible ease and a very stern demeanor. All the security precautions had been taken. All of the wing doors and passageways had been sealed with some sort of blocking or illusionary kido. The Hollows were coming from the woods, most everyone knew, and they came in much fewer numbers than the last time. That led the guards to assume the same thing.


	80. Shadow of Death, Twice

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

0

Natsumo was busy leading the line of guards in the heartless slaughter of Hollows and all their ilk that came crawling over the wall and charging through the gate. Her powerful gauntlets made quick work of her enemies, smashing them into spraying, bloodied, spinning bodies that faded off into that ethereal darkness. Already she was deep in fighting.

She vaulted over a short Hollow, grabbing and crushing its skull as she went into the air and made a rapid dash of punches at an airborne Hollow. Once she landed on the ground her punches materialized and the Hollow flew away from the force, crashing near another group of shinigami that finished it off.

"She's amazing!" a shinigami said, looking at Natsumo's horde of swarming, fight-thirsty Hollows. Natsumo didn't waste any of her energy. She punched and back-handed the Hollows at her front and at her sides, clutching their thrown punches and kicks between her studded forearms and snapping their arms with incredible ease. She would wind up a punch over her shoulder, step in and deliver it. The force instantly blew a hole through the Hollow or split its mask and blew the mysterious spiritual substance within to smithereens. Natsumo snapped her head around and stopped an incoming punch with one arm, keeping the other tightly wound up with her eyes glaring wide and her lips pursing with rage.

"HAAAAAHHH!!!!!" she screamed, stepping in and blowing the Hollow's body to pieces. Her destructive force exhausted her. She was breathing far too hard without a break and working too hard to be safe. More Hollows kept attacking. She clapped her hands together and formed one of her translucent spheres between them. She compressed it until the tips of her fingers caged it in and the rumbling force shook the ground around her feet. _"SUIHOU-__**HOU!!!**__"_ She shot her hands forward, dug her feet into the dirt and flashed out her palms. The bubble exploded in front of her, obliterating the nearest Hollows and blasting the others away. Her arms were becoming heavy already and she used the short opportunity to rest and gather her strength to keep fighting.

_No good_ she thought. _I'm done for if I have to keep fighting like this. Why can't Telly help out on the front lines? Her release is our biggest ace aside from Lady Unohana herself!_ The Hollows were stirring once again. They got up and shook off their pain and wounds and stared Natsumo down once more. She shrunk back and took up her heavy arms once again, like she was ready to take them on. Obviously, from the shaking in her knees and the nervous demeanor on her face, she was certainly not ready to continue the fight.

"**WAHOOO!!!"** shouted a young and rambunctious voice. Charging in from the side with a sling full of sharpened metal javelins at his back was Katana Netami. Crafted through carefully preserved kido, Katana took one of the spears in his hand and made a powerful toss. Once it hit a Hollow it expanded as a cylinder and blew the monster apart. Netami threw the rest as he ran, killing off most of the larger and more cumbersome Hollows while the nimble, sharp-clawed and fang-toothed ones remained to charge at him. Netami took up his sword to them, cut the arms from one, cut the chest of another and then vaulted over one and spun in the air to splits its mask from behind, all before landing in a skid next to Natsumo.

"Nice night for a stroll" Natsumo said, panting.

"Great night for a fight!" Netami agreed. The hollows remaining glared their way and began a merciless charge.

"Kido Squad!" a man shouted from up on the roof of the manor. The Hollows turned to him and saw a line of guards, Telly in the center, all with the same pose. On one knee, one arm aimed straight forward and the other arm drawn back with a blinding light radiating from the pointed tips of their fingers. Telly's sight was lined up straight at a Hollow smaller than the rest, a harder target to hit for certain, but she still kept her hands steady, aiming right for the cresting strip between its glowing eyes. The man standing behind the center, a man wearing a small crown of cloth wrapped around a red spire, a Buddhist white silk around his chest instead of black robes and pants tied at his wooden-sandaled feet, rose up a thick arm and then threw it down. He raged his commands through a face with such sharp angles and features that it cut the air around him as he yelled. "**FIRE!!!"**

"Biting force of a hundred dragons!" the kido squad announced in unison. "Light of the Moon! _**Tsukihari!!!**_" A magnificent array of shining white blasts lit up the night. Once the glare died down Natsumo glanced at the Hollows. The smallest one with lashing, razor-sharp claws was pierced through the center of its mask by a silver ribbon of energy. Once all the light finally died the slowly-moving bodies of the Hollows erupted into mists of blackened energy. Telly immediately stood up from the line and pressed her hand into the inside of her elbow, flexing the other arm and flipping the dead Hollows an angry bird.

"HELL YEAAAAHHH!!!" Telly roared, looking masculine and angry. "Screw you, you ugly sons of bastards! I'm Telly and I kicked your asses!!!" Telly continued shouting and hooting while Natsumo looked up in a flat embarrassment. Netami tapped his sword to his shoulder and grinned.

"Nice to see such uninhibited feelings in her" he said to Natsumo. "Why don't you bust loose like that more often? Afraid of messing your hair?"

_Flippant little moron_ Natsumo thought. Her eye twitched a bit. She straightened the bun of her hair and turned to Netami, as sweet and gently lady-like as she could. Her eyes even widened and sparkled, giving a feminine light to the bloody night. "Oh, all girls can be like that, sweety! Don't forget it!" Netami was speechless...and a little frightened. Natsumo returned to her regular, stern face and turned forward. The Hollows, for the most part, were defeated and the battle was basically over. Those left were being rapidly overwhelmed by shinigami force and were quick on the road to destruction. Natsumo turned to her left and saw, a far distance away, one Hollow with a large back and larger tail breathing fire at a group of guards.

"I'm on that!" Netami said as he flash-stepped across the grounds to help fight. Telly jumped down and landed behind Natsumo with a victorious grin of happiness on her face.

"Cheer up, girl!" Telly said, patting Natsumo hard on the back. "We've won again! Of course, I think you helped out too, but mostly it was us..."

"Telly" Natsumo said, her voice dreadful. She turned with wide eyes to Telly, a deeply frightened look on her face. "Where are the rest of them?" she asked. Telly looked at her strangely, then she felt it. The incoming presence. All the Hollows they had just faced just barely equaled to this enormous force that charged at them. A wave of pressure that shook the grass like an ominous wind.

The shadow of a cloud passed over the moon on a cloudless night and the pressure entered far too familiar territory...

0

They came with a crash and stood in the rubble for a moment. The dust settled like a nervous fog to the floor and out they stepped. Three tenacious, ferocious demons with skull heads. Three Hollows had broken through the roof of the main hallway leading to the orphanage wing of the Unohana estate. The guards were too slow in stopping their assault from the air, and now they played a desperate game to catch up with their lost track.

"Halt!" one guard called. He ran straight for the tall, winged figure that stood nearly up to the busted ceiling. The mighty Hollow turned its head slowly to register the incoming guards but left the task to his underlings.

"I've got it" the raspy one said, climbing over the rubble to rush the guards down.

"Up, down, forward forward and duck" the humanoid one said. The guards ignored all their Hollow banter and attacked. The first attack came from above, then the other guard sliced from below. Both advanced with stabs that the thick-armed Hollow flipped over fully. It landed behind them just as they ducked. It gave its arms a simply, quick jerk backwards, barely contacting the guards, and they were sent tumbling swiftly forward. The tall Hollow raised a leg and caught on under its sharp taloned foot while the other just rolled to a stop and started bleeding.

"Weaklings, all" it boomed, glaring down at the petrified guard. The large-armed, raspy-voiced Hollow walked forward, a cocky sway in its hips that turned in rhythm with the huge arms it dragged through the air. The moonlight revealed its white body, its two huge forearms ending in perpetually knotted fists and wrists encircled with thick, metallic growths like chainless shackles. It's face was monstrous in form, with a single daring horn jutting out from its forehead. The spot around that protrusion was surrounded by a crown of tiny sharp bumps. Its eyes were so evilly carved that no other emotion aside from the lust of murder could shine out and its teeth were all sharpened to a razor point, long and thick for the ripping of flesh.

It's hole resided at its lower abdomen where its body thinned and its slender, defined legs began. "What fun" it rasped. "I haven't had a good fight in a long, _long_ time."

"It's been nights" the human one said. "For you, I guess that would be too long. I'm surprised you survived a single night without fighting..."

"No you're not" the horned one said, opening its mouth wide to rasp as loud as it could at him. The humanoid one turned. It's mask was perfectly human. Not a single monstrous deformity or external structure to speak of, though its hole was placed oddly as its left eye in a perfectly round shape. The right eye had the sloped sadness of a human's skull. It's body, unlike the others, was a deep and dark violet and had spots of black circles all over it. Around its waist it wore the tattered mantle left behind from shinigami long since slain, which it used to catch its posture with its hands, stowing them in the sides like pockets, and led itself forward in a long slouch.

"You're right" it said. "I'm never really surprised..."

"**We must go..."** the tall, dominating one said. Its wings of feathers folded into its sides and the feathers all disappeared. It's huge bony arms were folded into its sides with the tips jutting out behind it. It pressed down hard until it heard a crack and then began striding forward. "**Chupra Loco is waiting...**"

"He's been waiting" the humanoid said "for too long already. Nearly a full night."

"Silence **Vicente**" the large-armed Hollow demanded. Vicente only marched straight ahead with his hands folded into his mantle.

"You're about to get scolded" Vicente said, turning to the Hollow it warned, "**Margarita Moon."**

"**Enough from you both" **the tall one demanded.

"Yes, **Garuda"** Moon said with a bow. Vicente just walked, face straight, while Moon sneered at him with a villainous glowing of its eyes. Finally they reached the end of the long hall, killed two more guards and entered the children's ward of the estate, the Unohana Orphanage, a home for the children of lost soldiers and the beaten men and women abandoned by their own fallen empires. The philanthropic wing that earned Unohana such a prestigious name. These three Hollows, with Moon's arm blowing down the door, entered and stirred a panic throughout the ward.

"**Kill all interlopers**" Garuda demanded. Moon dashed forward, disappearing into thin air just before a guard, then came out from behind with a kick. The guard went staggering to the side and right into Moon's terribly solid arm, going unconscious in an instant.

"Attack!" the guard captain commanded. A troop of sword-wielding men clad in metal armor charged Vicente who just glared at them and slouched ever downward. The first few swipes were total misses, going nowhere near the intended target. Vicente weaved his way through all their attempted attacks, breathing steadily and leaning radically away from their sword strokes.

"What a predictable bunch" Vicente said. He took one arm from his mantle, one arm from its lazy slot, and used it to crush each sword with a quick and brutal snap. When it was over he held five blades in his hand and let them fall to the floor, leaving five men with broken swords defenseless against the towering force of Garuda. "You announced your shots too early...." Garuda opened its fanged maw behind Vicente and spread his wings. A terrible pressure went out with his booming hiss of air and sapping the strength from the guard's legs. They were all floored at once, their consciousness sapped, and vulnerable to the terrible mouth of Vicente...

0

Finally, it seemed the fighting was over. The Hollows that charged the mansion were slain and the guards celebrated their victory with their shouts and howls to the night sky. Netami, of course, led them in the howling as he wore the skinned pelt of a fur-covered Hollow across his shoulders as a trophy.

"HAAAAOOOOOUUUUUU!!!!!!" he roared, leading his other excited brethren to cry with him. He tapped his sheathed sword to his shoulder and looked out to the shinigami, all steaming in the humid air from their dire fighting. He picked out a girl with delicate eyes, hair that held tight to her head while curling up at her neck, and robes splattered with blood and jumped over to her. "Nice fighting, right?" he said, moving in close. She grinned and moved into his chest with a hungry little grin.

"I could keep going" she said suggestively. Netami flicked his tongue and held her tight to his chest. A bell tolled somewhere deep within the mansion. A bell made from strong iron, hung with blessed ropes and amplified with a resonating sound pressure that echoed far into the distance. An emergency that startled all the guards, mercenaries and soldiers that dared to hear it. Netami and his captivated battle bride were shaken by its tone but curious to its purpose. Many guards took up their swords and began a mad and panicked rush for the manor's further wing.

"The orphanage is under attack!" a man shouted as the shinigami darted across the grounds. Netami drew away from his girl and looked after the advancing warriors. She looked worried, waiting for new, for orders to help her move from her panic.

"Hey" Netami said, catching her attention. He jerked his head in that direction, she nodded, and together the flash-ran off and away. _This ain't good, I take it. A bunch of defenseless kids are the last things we want to lose around here. Damn! DAMN! We really need to hurry, don't we!?_ "Pick it up, dammit! Slow-asses! COME ON! RUUUNNN!!!" Netami had instantly taken hold of the situation and sped the operation up drastically. Under his charismatic command the fleet of shinigami reached the shattered kido barrier around the orphanage wing and stormed the premise. Netami, with his girl beside him, took to the highest level where he luckily stumbled upon the ruins of slaughtered soldiers.

"Holy...." Netami began. His curse was cut short by his own disbelief. Three Hollows stood in a room devoid of any rational soul. All that remained of the soldiers had been devoured and the final piece of their existence was hanging from the flat teeth of Vicente's mouth, a whole arm left undevoured yet.

"I saw you coming" Vicente said, turning to them and chomping the arm down, "so I ate as fast as I could." The rest of the shinigami finally came up to the floor. Some through the proper stairwell and others through the open windows.

"The kids downstairs are fine" one shouted "now let's kill these godless beasts before they can change that!"

"Oh?" Moon rasped. In a flash it was in front of that man, its wide fingers placed carefully around the shinigami's slender shoulders. "There are more souls below us?" The shinigami was paralyzed by fear. Moon gripped hard and leaned in to open its mouth and breath out a breath of a thousand-fold deaths. "Thanks for the tip!" and with that it swung its arms down and **tore two holes in the shinigami, one at each detached shoulder.** Moon stepped away as the shinigami bled out and fell flat over. "Vicente! Another snack for you!"

"Knew it..." Vicente said as he paced lazily over. "It was a good idea for me not to eat a lot before coming here. I knew I'd get a big feast..."

"**ATTACK!!!!"** Netami ordered. The shinigami, still high from their previous victory, charged forward and attacked at full force. Moon blocked the attacks with its heavy arms and swung the shinigami away, though and into walls. More and more guards kept coming in from all over the estate, ready to defend the wing with their lives. Garuda ignored the squabbling and placed the tip of its long, powerful wing on the wing door. It was bolted shut and protected by a powerful barrier kido.

"**A useless effort"** he said in his booming tenor.

"Stop the huge one!" a shinigami shouted.

"We can't hit this one!" another called that was fighting Vicente. Vicente sighed, weaved his body through the attacks and delivered a mighty punch into that shinigami's face. The warrior was silence and the rest around Vicente retreated while the monster rose its fist to its mouth and licked the blood that was on his knuckles with a slimy, black tongue.

"Of course not" Vicente said. "You're fighting so plainly. It's hard not to see what you're doing..."

"CRAM IT!" Netami roared. He came in, his sword in both hands, and made a desperate chop for Vicente's neck. The Hollow ducked down, stepped backward and threw his back into Netami's chest. The pain was incredible. What was more incredible was the flat expression the Hollow kept as it slowly returned to its original position while Netami rolled across the floor.

"KATANA!" the girl shouted. "Are you alright!?" Netami stabbed his sword to the floor to get up and prepared to charge in when a sudden rush of danger coursed through his body. He made a desperate leap to the side and just barely avoided a razor-sharp blast of icy wind that blew through the wall and straight at Garuda.

"**_Accla Escudo"_**Garuda said, His wing was suddenly bursting with pluming feathers, soft and light, which absorbed the ripping wind like a cool breeze. From that stirring, frozen hold a figure appeared, followed by the moving, liquid shadow of a man that moved through the foggy screen with a flexible thing between his hands behind his back. That figure straightened up into a fully man shape and the weapon behind his back suddenly became a sharp, short blade. The other, one with a mantle of robes around his waist and a flittering tail behind his head, stood tall and proud as the fog from the attack cleared and crossed his powerful arms.

Garuda lowered his wing to look through his red eyes at the newcomers. They weren't as weak as these assaulting guards. They were much stronger, completely different creatures. Vicente kept his lethargic gaze fixated on the new pair and sighed. Moon kept a wide breadth of distance between itself and the shinigami fighting it as they all waited for one of these glorious things to speak. Finally, the one braving the cold with a bare chest and a bare head, gave the first daring sound of speech. An arrogant, tactless, gaudy exclamation that regardless shook the hearts of Hollow and shinigami alike. He curled a grin, bared his fangs and scoffed

"Tch!"

0

"Hehehe..." Carroll chuckled as he stomped through the unguarded halls. "Just as planned...It's all gone just as planned!" He sneered with an impossible sense of victory, a villain on his gait of unbreakable tenacious charisma. He marched on and checked a room. No one was in. He slammed the door shut and continued his arrogant march. "I played those fools like a gaggle full of sheepish little...frogs! Squishy frogs that I step on and kill with a single twist of me steely heel!" Again he stopped, checked a room with no one inside, and continued on. "Those Hollows got played too. Of course they'll get taken down, but I'll still get my prize!" He checked one more room.

"AAAAAGH!!!!" he raged. "Where is that bitch!? How well can she hide!?" A sudden ripple of energy reached him. His face returned to that villainous sneer and he went straight through the halls for the garden. With a blast of force he threw open the doors and saw, right in the middle on her stone bench, Rei Unohana with her sword held softly in her folded hands. She looked up at Carroll with stunning eyes, sending her sense of betrayal as forcefully as she could, hoping it would register with him as the same nefarious force that he had initially given her. He felt it, her broken pride and shattered trust, and it made him smile. She stood up, keeping her sword in her hands steadily.

"You aimed to kill me" Rei said "for wealth? Who would want me dead?"

"I never asked" Carroll said. "I only know that there are people who want other people dead, and when I tell them that I can help them achieve their twisted goals they come flocking to me! That's what being free is about, being able to do anything, never being held back by something as fragile as diplomacy or politics! That's the **Manzenryuu!** It's my entire life!!!" Rei just gave him the same pitied glare, but this time it was her own pity that she sent out.

An explosive force! Carroll was stunned and held under a shaking wave of white. Rei's coat blended into the scenery she warped perfectly. Her sword made a glowing halo in front of her body and then was brought back into praying hands. She did not state its name. It was unnecessary, after all. Now she simply had her glowing white sword in hand. Carroll finally freed himself from her grip just as she gripped her sword at her side and rushed in. He drew his own out and slashed down as she approached. She slid to the side and then slid up, stopping her piteous face inches from his.

"I would think" she began " a truly strong warrior wouldn't try to distract me to kill me. If you were strong, and capable, and worth paying, you could ride up to anyone on that beaten steed of yours and just issue a straight challenge. Why bother dealing with darker forces?" Carroll made a grab for her face, but she fled and stopped just outside his range, her sword poised down. Carroll took his sword up and started spinning it rapidly overhead. He had an evil grin on his face, a brazen pride in the disgraceful character that Rei had drawn.

"It's just my way" Carroll said. "Nothing more. **Nothing less!**" Rei glared at him. Her anger was awakened and now she posed seriously. One leg forward, both hands together, sword pointed up at his face, eyes locked to his motions. Rei prepared to fight him for all he was worth. "Mutilate! **Negroarpoar!!!**" His black spear came into existence, and with its spinning force he made his first attack by making a wide swing of its barbed hilt. Rei simply jumped over it, drew her sword back near her shoulder, and swooped in for a single, fatal blow. She swung early and hit the spear as Carroll jerked it back and stabbed up at her. He grinned and held her up in the air for a bit. Once she was on the ground the true blocking battle began.

"It's useless, you intolerable bitch!" Carroll shouted. "Each hit I strike your sword with draws away its power! My spear absorbs pure spiritual power, from anything living or unliving!!!" Rei continued blocking regardless, leaning into her sword when she caught the spear and then jumping away when she lost it to his grip. Carroll drew it back far and stepped into a stab. Rei simply dodged it. He smiled at that and swung it at her. Rei blocked it and was thrown over the brush and into a patch of long, flowery grass. Carroll charged at her across the artificial field and stabbed at her from his maximum range.

When Rei tried to advance she couldn't avoid that spear and was forced back. She was playing defensively, she had to as Carroll wouldn't let up at all. He stabbed and swiped, cutting and draining away the plants along the ground, always with that glaring grin on his sharp face. Rei couldn't let herself get pushed into a corner, and she certainly couldn't waste her time trying to close on such an opponent. She slashed her sword along the ground and threw up a cloud of grass and dirt.

"Cheap trick, Rei!" Carroll said. He retreated and waited for her to come at him again. She did not. She simply stood as the grass in the air latches itself to the dirt and flourished into a verdant patch that suspended itself for a short time before falling back down and rooting back into the ground. The air around her was glowing with life and her radiant smile gave that light such shine that Carroll forgot it was night and squinted his eyes to see.

"You hold a dark heart" Rei said, "but mine is one of light, healing. I have a **Holy** aura."

"Aura...?" Carroll said, only now hearing this term. "Whatever that means, it must have something to do with your inability to kill me! Come on! Try harder! The sooner you make a mistake the sooner I get to-huh?" Carroll pursed his lips and furrowed his brow. He had been insulted. Rei sheathed her sword, deactivated, and sat among the singing, glowing plants she had made with her attack. A lovely smile was on her face and she kept her eyes fixed on Carroll's face. "Are you screwing with me?" Carroll asked. Rei didn't answer. "Bitch. Are you trying to mock me!?" Rei just kept smiling. Her pressure was calm, relaxing, perfectly docile.

A shadow moved over the moon, another cloud on a cloudless night.

"**I'LL KILL YOU, BITCH!!!**" Carroll called as he rose his spear high over his head. Rei closed her eyes and looked away.

_For once, I missed it_ Rei thought. A shadow from the sky fell and covered her earth with impenitrable black. Carroll froze for a moment, seeing his life already ending, and watched the perfect movement of an ideal warrior. _That feeling that you're here...without it, none of us are quite right. We missed you...**death.**_ And with the heroic, arcing swing of his scythe, Shin killed Carroll and was lifted by the force of his attack, a shadow that carried up to the sky for one last time before landing back in the garden, right near Rei's own stone bench. He spun his scythe over wrist, hand and forearm, a blindingly fast blur of deadly black, then settled it with a clash on his shoulder before turning his body and looking at Rei with his lethally sharp eyes and flat expression. She stood up and grinned at him.

They both decided to ignore Carroll's dying body in favor of a greeting. Shin began. He turned up his index and middle finger on the hand that held his scythe and straightened his back a bit.

"Yo" he said. "Been a bit, hasn't it?"

"Yes" Rei said, smiling wider now, a friendly warmth between her and the cold, deadly field of Shin's presence. That warmth still carried through to him, though, as was evidence in the frosty breath he breathed.

"Damn it's cold up here" he said.

"I haven't noticed" Rei said. "Perhaps you should go inside and get warm."

"In there?" Shin said, moving to face her with his whole body. He looked down and shook his head. "It's not gonna stay warm in there for long, not if Suichi has anything to say about it."

"Is that so?" Rei said. Shin grinned at her as she smiled so warmly at him. "Well, we better get going." She said as she flash-stepped inside. Shin followed right behind, keeping a perfect pace with his scythe still out.

"What's the rush?" Shin asked. "They can't outrun **death,** can they?"

0  
Tsukihari: Moon Beam  
Accla Escudo: Wing Shield (Spanish)


	81. Return to Home

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Standing with his pigtailed hair blowing in the gusts of wind was mighty Hoji Araijin! His sinewy arms crossed across his manly chest and feet sternly planted shoulder width apart, he resonated with a heated, warrior's vibe which sent the weaker specimen of the room spinning. His spiritual pressure had a crazed strength added to it by the sheer audacious presence that he emitted from his dramatic and theatrical entry. The cold air steamed off his exposed skin and made him ethereal, more so than was normal, and gave him a sinister appearance for both the Hollows and shinigami who saw him.

"So this is where the party's at!" Hoji shouted, announcing his presences even louder than his natural offensive pressure did. "Tch! I'm upset!" He started marching forward, swinging his arms as he strode, looking around at the carnal scene. "You guys started without us, didn't you? Ah, I can't get mad about that. We took our sweet, damn time getting here, I'll admit that, but really! You couldn't wait just a few minutes before we showed up to start? I thought you guys had manners. Etiquette. I didn't think it would be possible to walk in on a party already half-over!"

"Don't be such a pessimist" Suichi said, walking out calmly from the hissing cold steam from where the humid night air hit the chilling, dry ice. "I think this party is just half started."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, emitting an animal glare in his direction. Suichi had a tough grin on his face to rival Hoji's own arrogant charisma, but he wasn't strutting without purpose. He was analyzing and studying the enemies and their positions. One Hollow with huge arms, obviously one with incredible fighting power. One that was lithe and human-formed and had more power within than it was demonstrating. Then, of course, there was the tall one with wings. Suichi could tell the danger that it emitted without having to look. He could feel its hard glaring eyes through Hoji's field of wind-whipping pressure.

"Well..." Vicente began, "this is an unprecedented turn of events, isn't it?"

"Could it be" Moon began with a haughty whisper "your all-seeing eyes couldn't see this happening?"

"I knew something like this would happen" Vicente said. He shoved his hands into the folds of his lower robes and slouched forward. "I didn't quite know when, but this was an obvious outcome." Garuda turned his attention away from the door and looked down at Vicente.

"**How long did you know?"** he asked. Hoji turned his head and Suichi flinched at the booming sound of the Hollow's deep voice. Despite the demand for knowledge from the wide-winged creature Vicente was steadfast in revealing nothing.

"You little bitch!" Moon rasped. Hoji dashed across the room and drove a shoulder-powered tackle into Moon's torso, reeling the Hollow back off its feet while he retreated before a single blow could be thrown against him. He flipped and hopped across the room and drew his sword while still upside-down mid-motion, holding it flat and horizontal in front of his face while he leaned far down and forward. Suichi sighed at the brashness of his act and drew his sword out defensively, reverse grip in his right hand, striking a pose against Vicente. The Hollow lazily cracked its neck with a swift jerk from side to side and clacked the rows of its skeleton teeth together.

"You're a pretty concise fighter" Vicente said.

"I'm an assassin" Suichi explained, spinning his blade with the flick of his wrist. "It's not my job to drag things out, but rather make things drag." Vicente tilted his head. Even Hoji gave an animal grunt of curiosity and looked over at him. Suichi's face fell flat. "Things as in...bodies. Hmmm...Well, I guess I know what kind of humor _not_ to use."

"You're going to fall" Vicente said. He dashed forward and jabbed his arm at Suichi who dropped straight back and rolled onto his back when he hit the floor. Vicente stomped where Suichi's gut was and contacted the panels of wood under him. Suichi had already rolled to the side, recovered, and was coming in with his sword in his left hand for a quick series of slashes and stabs. Vicente read every move and dodged the attack effortlessly until the swings became longer and looser and much less predictable. He backed off with a leap and saw a chain coiling in Suichi's hand, extending from the tight metal spiral around his forearm.

"You can incant without speaking?" Vicente said. "Is that even possible?"

"It is for me" Suichi said, spinning his chain around in a looping symbol before drawing it all back to the spike on his finger. "What good is an assassin who has to announce his attacks?"

"Good point" Vicente said. They stood off while the floor shook rhythmically. Hoji and Moon had started their fight as well. Hoji hopped around on all fours, loosely straddling the ground on the tips of his fingers and the toes of his feet. His sword was in his mouth, and with each powerful air-blasting swing Moon threw the fight drew closer and closer to the hole in the wall. Hoji smiled with a lowing growl as he led the Hollow closer and closer to his spontaneously-articulated trap.

"Feel free to step in anytime" Hoji roared I Garuda's direction. "Don't think I can't fight more than one of you at once!" Garuda growled and stabbed through the kido barrier around the secure wing door. The glowing glass-colored energy burst apart and shrapnel of slicing energy sank uselessly into the steel feathers of Garuda's wing. He swept his wing away and disposed of all the glass shards, bursting them into nothing with the tension of his feathers, and glared at the door to move.

"Hey!" Katana called. Garuda turned around and received a steel blade to his top layer of fanged teeth, a failed mask-splitting cut by the wild warrior. "Are you stupid, or did you forget? Those guys aren't the only two shinigami here!!!" Katana's body started to fall through the air but not before he began a mad flurry of slices, stabs, cuts and hacks against Garuda's steel-hard skull. The winged Hollow brought up one of its long, skinny legs and kicked Katana across the room, not expecting him to recover, let along simply land and rush back in for more.

"**...useless**" Garuda growled. He extended his wing and gave a strong flap, blasting the air in front of him, blowing Katana away once more.

"You call that an attack!?" Hoji roared. "Tch! You're nowhere near my level!" Hoji ducked under one of Moon's straight punches and stabbed his sword straight through its slender torso. With the Hollow reeling in shock and pain he planted his feet near the wound and kicked away, grabbing his sword and incanting while flipping slowly in the air. "Rip and Tear, _Torakaze!!!_" He threw his arms out while the spiritual wing roared around them and landed in a perfect pose. His arms straight, his head high, his legs together and firmly planted. His fists blew open with bladed, golden claws, whipping sharp wind around the shining, gilded gauntlets.

"Both of them can release?" Vicente observed. "I think it's safe to say that we're dealing with some markedly dangerous shinigami this time around. I can't predict a good way out of this besides retreat."

"They're just two punks!" Moon harshly growled.

"....No" Vicente said. "There's another around here...."

* * *

In the dark, quiet forest surrounding the foothills of the Unohana manor a heavy-footed beast began stalking through the shadows of the night. A long mane of fur around its face, pale white and full of hunger. A huge maw and distended jaw, weak from hunger, marked its vicious intent as it lowed and stomped through the woods. It crept up to the border of the woods, where the clearing had been made to situate the house of orphans in the great estate, and there it stood and glared through two of its four eyes, glowing and white. In a of the lowest floor the glaring gaze shone through and stirred awake a light sleeper. A young boy stood up from his mattress on the soft tatami floor and walked tiredly over to the window to see if the moon was shining too brightly or if the sun was rising already. Outside that window he saw the sight that scared him wide awake.

His mouth dropped open and a bead of snot escaped from his nose. He was quick to snort it back up and began a stuttering shake of noise as he backed away from the window and tripped over the feet of a long-legged young girl.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, then turned over and groaned sleepily. "What happened?" She looked up, her wide eyes over her youthfully freckle-spotted nose catching the young boy pointing and shivering at the window. She whipped off her covers and stood up in her full, near adult height, looking down at the boy with tired and angry eyes. "What's wrong with you? Why did you trip over me?"

"M-m-mo-mo-momm...." he began in a wild stutter. She raised an eyebrow at him, trying to silently coax the words out of him, until he finally managed to blurt out the word "**Monster!"** in a dry-voice of panic. She sighed and shook her head.

"I can't believe you" she said. "This can't be the first time you've ever seen a Hollow, can it?"

"What's going on?" a tired young boy said, turning up in his covers. The girl turned to him now.

"I don't think Jishida's ever seen a Hollow" she said.

"Really?" the boy asked, rising up tiredly.

"Well, until now, I guess" she said. She started walking over to the window. Jishida tried to work up the nerve to voice his concern and stop her before she reached it but to no avail at all. His throat was closed and wrung dry in his intense fear. The girl made it to the window, looked out, angled herself to look out from the sides and saw nothing but the edge of the forest and a soft wave of wind blowing the short grass and loose leaves from the trees away.

"There's nothing out there" she whispered. The boys walked over and looked past her to see for themselves, standing on their tip-toes to see what she could see as plain as day, even though it was night. They backed away, one disappointed and the other still chattering his teeth in fear, while the girl turned to them both. "Just go back to sleep, Jishida. You might have had a bad dream, or something, and didn't even know it." A loud thud and the fading of light shook the room from outside. The boys were frozen and white-faced with fear. The girl turned around, her eyes already wide, and saw the **mask of a Hollow** too wide to fit the entirety of the window glaring in at the room full of sleeping souls. The girl backed away and nearly fell over herself. The boys huddled together in a single bed and pulled the sheets over their heads. The girl was left to stare the Hollow down, face to face, eyes to eyes, waiting for it to move or growl or something else to equate its fearsome image with the fear she felt in her thin belly.

Suddenly a man's hand came up and lifted the jaw of the Hollow's wide-mouthed mask up. Another hand came from the side to steady the mask as it was lifted, and gradually the form of a lanky, defined man was revealed to be hiding under the huge mask. The body of a shinigami wearing the robes that were tattered and torn, with stains of blood that wasn't his across his tall, wide chest. Finally the hands passed a face and suddenly thrust up. The Hollow's mask was thrown behind him and crashed to the ground where it groaned and vanished into an ethereal cloud of darkness, back to whence it came. The girl was still stunned with fear for she didn't know this man taller than anyone she had ever seen, and his wide, manic eyes struck in her a terrible sense of madness and anxiety that drove her heart to beat audibly from her chest. The unfitting innocence in his beady eyes covered by blood-red bangs only made him look worse, more discomforting, but at the same time brotherly.

"Hello" Jin greeted from the other side of the window. The girl was shocked that it could speak. "It's a nice night, isn't it? Shouldn't you be sleeping this late, though?" he asked. Again, unfitting innocence rang in his voice, and having been thrown over an intolerable point of fear the girl's body fell numb until she was on the floor, eyes wide open, consciousness lost. Jin stepped away from the window and looked around.

"Hmmmm" he hummed in thought. "I guess there isn't a door here after all. I could swear there was something back here though..." Jin scratched his head and looked around for a sense of familiarity. He hadn't realized yet what side of the estate he was on, the farthest south tip where the orphans were, and his nostalgic memory failed him for being in a place he had never been before. Suddenly, with a childish grin, he received an epiphany. "I'll just go to the roof and run around until I see something that looks familiar!" he said. With a powerful jump straight up he reached the roof and saw the hold still steaming in the bridge from the main estate buildings to the orphan wing. "Oooo! I don't remember that but it looks cool!" Jin started running on the roof, light steps at a mighty speed, and drove straight through the wall above the securely bolted wing doors.

"Tch!?" Hoji grunted.

"Knew it" Vicente said, pointing Suichi away from their current battle. Jin landed and stood tall, as tall as Garuda, and turned slowly around to take in the scenery with a loud intake of air.

"Ahhhhhhh~~~!" he sighed. "I remember this place!"

"Not another one!" Moon hissed. It fashed forward and delivered a powerful right hook to Jin's gut. He barely moved. All that force was diluted and spread to the ground where a blast of cool mist was kicked up and swirled around Jin while Margarita Moon just stood dumbstruck by its own failure.

"I'm home now...." Jin said in a dreamy daze. He smiled widely and sank to his knees, palming the splintered wood, breaking the sharp shards with the sweeps of his powerful hands. "I'm home......"

"Welcome home" Suichi said.

"Yeah yeah" Hoji growled. "Hurry up and help us kill these things! Take the big one!"

"Okay!" Jin said, enthusiastically swaying to the suggestion of murder. He reached inside his chest and drew out one of his blades. A mad fury overcame him and he held himself up against Garuda.

"**Yet more of you to slaughter"** the Hollow said, turning full away from the door with Netami's body hung over his left wing, bloody and beaten. "**It matters not to me. It is just more of you for us to eat..."**

"Say that again" Jin growled. "**I ain't the one with uncooked wings, you oversized pheasent!!! HYRAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"** His roar started the battle anew. He charged in, forgetting himself and his body, and started up a relentless offense of body-reeling slashes and hacks that Garuda guarded with both of his feathered wings. Moon was taken aback to reality when Hoji grabbed it by the head and tripped its feet from the floor.

"TCH!" he shouted, slamming the Hollow's face to the hard floor, splintering and smashing even more of the wood.

"Care to make one last prediction?" Suichi asked his formidable opponent.

"Sure" Vicente said. He straightened up, loosened up and aimed a single finger Suichi's way. Then he flicked his wrist so the finger aimed up, and opened his skeleton mouth. "We will survive to fight again, despite what death you may try and bring to us..." The prediction made Suichi grin.

_I'm sure he'll be here shortly,_ he thought.

* * *

Shin and Rei dashed through the halls, carrying their weight by the balls of their feet and pushing forth with a shared intensity of drive. Rei had her hand on the handle of her sword. Shin swung his scythe around his body in slow, circular swings as he ran, ever prepared for any attack to come at him. Rei could sense his excitement, even through the apathetic appearance he took to seem more calm and collected like her. He was itching to fight. Even his fingers twitched when the scythe left their grip and settled back only when that cold steel made contact again.

"Don't be too reckless" Rei said, catching Shin's attention. "I shouldn't have to tell you anything, but these aren't ordinary Hollows we may be dealing with."

"Right" Shin said. "They're those things that I can't quite remember the name of....Adrians?"

"Adjuchas" Rei corrected. Shin sighed and faced forward again.

"I shouldn't talk if I can't" he said.

"Shin" Rei began once more, "if these things have broken through the barrier and the door...if the worst case scenario is upon us I want you to be careful. They may have already killed many guards and may have gotten to the children in the refugee wing."

"Got it" Shin said. "I'll make sure not to kill the broken or dying kids I find, if they're to be found." Rei deplored his manner of speaking but knew he accepted her terms. He was a good enough man not to kill defenseless children, even if it meant he got to fight the monsters head on. The halls finally ended and the flash-step marathon stopped as Shin and Rei arrived at the front-line scene where Hoji, Suichi and Jin were already fighting valiantly. Suichi was stabbing and shooting his chain at Vicente, who dodged expertly and made shorts attacks that were inevitably blocked. Hoji was boxing with Margarita Moon and winning, staying near to the hole in the wall for his own purposes. Jin was keeping Garuda at bay, swinging his one butchering blade with all the might of his whipping body, reeling to and fro with berserk fury and strength.

"They're having fun" Shin said. "And look, the kiddies are safe too." Rei didn't stay with him long. She flash-stepped across the room, past Vicente who caught her motions, right to Garuda.

"Garuda! Duck!" Vicente called. Garuda bent his long legs and avoided a sudden, shining decapitation sweep from Rei's sword. He shot straight back up and kicked Rei away with the bladed underside of his feet. She blocked and was sent into the chest of Jin, who absorbed her as a projectile attack and growled madly as she slid off. He was off again on a raging tangent of swings and punches, none of them connecting beyond Garuda's mighty shield of feathers.

"You took your time!" Hoji shouted, grabbing Moon and pushing it away with a solid punch to the throat. Hoji looked across the room at Shin with a grin. Shin spun his scythe to rest across his shoulders and gave him a quick nod of greeting.

"You just about ready?" Shin asked.

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed in excitement. "Hell yeah, I am!" Moon rolled over and began to get up, but Hoji had a better use than pointless fighting. He picked Moon up by its central horn and threw it over to Garuda who covered himself in his wings to block and ducked down. Jin's attack showed no relent. He reached inward for his other blade but a blast of commanding pressure from Shin stopped him and forced him to retreat, as was planned. "Suichi! Get a move on!"

"Sorry" Suichi said to Vicente. "You guys have to leave now! The party's almost **over!"** Suddenly the ground surrounding Vicente erupted with a blast of cold and in an instant he was frozen in a prison of solid ice. Suichi grinned and gave him a quick salute before Jin charged over and threw the ice-encased Hollow into the other two monsters. Rei took away Katana, the girl who followed him and many others she knew were still breathing to the furthest corner of the room, far away from the hole in the wall where Hoji was spinning his arms. His bladed hands made motions as they glided and carved through the air. His arms made snake-like motions as he twisted them around, moving his legs from one position to another, and a calm yet constant swirling wind began to pick up. Then Hoji stopped. His feet were planted and his fists were drawn, one full forward and the other drawn back. He grinned.

"I'm ready" Hoji said.

"Good" Shin said. "Get them out of here."

"You don't want to kill them now?" Suichi asked. "That's a bit strange of you, Shin."

"Don't be so surprised" Shin said. "I want to fight them, sure, but not here. There's got to be a better place for me to take these guys on and I'm willing to wait for it..." Shin looked over and saw the seething, hateful red glow of eyes shining beyond the ruffled steel feathers of Garuda's shielding wings. "**Can you?**" Shin asked. Garuda shot up to his full height and roared. The terrifying tenor boom shook the floor, the house, the estate and the air, creating a wicked turbulence in through all the night. Trees shook and the ground quaked for but a moment under the Hollows debilitating pressure, but Shin stood uncaring and grinned.

"**Yeah**" he lowed, "**me neither....**" Hoji stomped forward and gripped the air with his claws. The wind began to move as he roared and picked all three Hollows up by **moving the air around them**. He effectively pulled the carpet from under them and was manipulating the very air they stood in, such was his power, and connected it all with a long jet-stream of air he had produced from outside. He set the Hollows up for a cannon-velocity air-powered launch across the hills and into the side of a mountain, hoping that at least one would shatter and the others would sustain impressive injuries.

"_**Koukuou....."**_ Hoji began. He stepped backwards and began a hard walk towards the hole in the wall, his claws digging into the air and held above his head, dragging the wind from behind in a mighty display of raw power. **_"Toraaaaa....."_** His feet planted through the wood. The tension he dragged was at a full capacity. Garuda and his Hollows began to float in the air. Garuda gave Shin one final glare, seeing Shin glaring with an excited grin right back. _**"SE!!!!!!"**_ Hoji threw the air. The Hollows were thrown out along a winding stream of air, followed by a humungous blast of sound that further shook the crippled building and nearly collapsed the rafters that barely supported the damaged ceiling form caving in. After all the sound and fury, a silence took hold. The orphans and staff and all the unwakeable guards were all stirred up in a shock over the thunderous roar. In the room where the blast originated stood the arrogant Hoji, looking out over the brightening night sky, with the pain-reeling Suichi holding his head behind and stoic Shin with his eyes shut and grin faded from the sudden rush of pain. Rei had covered her ears before hand, predicting the enormous blast of wind creating an equally loud blast of sound.

* * *

Finally the dust and gusting settled and calmed, and the first audible sound to come since the bang was the expectant voice of one searching for an after-effect to the brilliant attack.

"Is that all?" Shin asked.

"Ahhh!" Suichi shouted. He stood up, his hands trembling away from his head, and breathed as he staggered backwards into a wall to rest. "Oh, good, I _can_ still hear."

"That was fun" Jin said with a giggle. He rocked back and forth with his hands cupping his knees, looking at the walls and the ceiling until he finally fell over from apparent exhaustion. "I'm home..."

"We know, Jin" Suichi said. "Congratulations."

"Rei" Shin said, sheathing his sword at long last. Rei turned up to him with a smile on her face and a wounded soldier at her side. "Our mission is over and I'm going to bed. I can't say the same for these two. This kid's name is Jin, I guess, that's what he responds to, and it'd be against my personal interest if you 'mothered' the fighter out of him. I'll talk to you tomorrow. God night." And with but a wave and a nod he left, off in a flash step.

"I _am_ going to bed" Suichi said. "Sorry, but I hope we aren't imposing ourselves on you too hard."

"Not at all" Rei said pleasantly.

"Well!" Hoji shouted, deaf from the loud noise, "Looks like those whiny little bitches won't be interfereing with us anymore!"

"Hoji?" Suichi called.

"Tch. Weaklings" he continued, unaware of his volume. "Just goes to show the weak crap that you guys can't handle! Man, we're really useful around here, aren't we!? Without us this whole place'd be gone in a week! What'dya say, Rei!? How about a celebratoy feast with lots of sake and women, huh!?" Hoji turned around, but in his shouting and deafness he hadn't noticed everyone leave. Rei even managed to carry out all the wounded on her own and the room was silent. It wasn't entirely silent, but since Hoji was deaf he couldn't hear any of the wood creaking or smoke crackling under piles of rubble.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "I guess they all went to bed already...weaklings."

And so the trio turned troop had returned safely to the Unohana manor, prevented a grim incident and saved countless lives, all at the cost of a giant, icy hole in the wall and a sleepless night from the louder-than-thunder explosive bang that Hoji had created. Dusk was soon coming, a rise of the sun over a dark and dismal land, in the darkest age of shinigami unity, politics, the feudal age of shinigami war and the Golden Era of all shinigami Power...

* * *

Koukuou Tora Se: King Tiger Current (as in a river. Also means Torrent, which works just as well)


	82. Settling back in

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

In the smoking crater blasted in the side of the mountain Garuda and his Hollows stirred and sank out into the open. Their slow defeated march, weighed down by the heavy hunger that endlessly wracked them, was the consequence of their defeat. Only Vicente seemed to be in higher spirits for surviving an impossible scenario. He held his arms together at his chest and walked upright for once while Moon sulked over its heavy arms and Garuda dragged its wings along the ground as he walked.

"I can't believe this!" Moon hissed. "This is humiliating!"

"Chupra Loco is dead" Vicente said. "His pressure is obliterated."

"....as expected" Garuda said. The tone of his voice had fallen back to the ground, losing its booming resonance without losing its darkness and depth. "He was never a Hollow whose mind aided him in battle. His purpose was to store the souls we gathered until we could return...it is a shame that we could not gather a single one."

"It's more than a shame!" Moon roared in a breathy, toneless voice. "This is miserable! I can't believe this! **RAAAAGH!!!!**" Moon smashed the ground and ruptured huge chunks of land to spike up around its thick, wide forearms. Moon hissed angry breaths into the dust, stirring up short bursts of dirty wind at each furious heave. Vicente brought his hands to his hips and held his sides, seeming inordinately arrogant in his stance. Garuda let his feathers flutter into residual spirit pressure and folded the spiked bones up to his side once more.

"We have failed" Garuda said "to save this region. However, there are more places in this world for us to go." Moon looked up, staying on the ground. Vicente's gaze was already fixed on the sinking moon in the blue horizon. "We still have a purpose. As the leading Hollows of our nest, it is or obligation and our quest to find a place in this world for us to migrate to. We shall deal with these shinigami in due time, but until we can grow more powerful, our quest in this land is at an end. We must return at once and inform the nest of our failure in the hopes that we will remain in the highest regards of their admiration and respect."

"That's a bit too much to hope for, I think" Vicente said. "Call me a pessimist but we're looking at exile, if not abandonment. They were trusting us to gather a bunch of rich souls from this place specifically. Where 'the **laughing clouds of death hang in the sky at all hours of the sunniest days'**. I can't think of any other place like that but that manor in this world...."

"Then we will find another place" Garuda said "just as rich and dense in spiritual energy."

"Or" Moon said, standing up finally, "we could move to the Blood Plains and settle with the monstrous Hollows there."

"I won't allow us to reduce ourselves" Garuda demanded "that far into disgrace. No Hollow lives there for long. A stronger, larger, or more evolved one always comes along and devours the hordes of weaklings that get in their way. Who's to say that we are not such weaklings? There are more powerful Hollows than I and Adjuchas all around in Hueco Mundo, searching for their next important meal. Nowhere is truly safe, but at least our nest has allies..." Garuda turned away from all the debris of the hill and the trees and aimed his fanged mouth up into the air. As he opened it an air-shaking roar blasted over the rolling valley and across the hills and through all the woods, traveling through the darkness as an immaterial deluge of sound.

It permeated through the dimensions, and through Garuda's hollow roar a **Garganta** was opened. Moon stood up, anger still shaking its body and fists, and it moved over to stand on Garuda's long, slender leg. Garuda expanded his wings to their fullest and materialized his bone-white feathers, prepared for flight into the opened jaws in the sky to take him and his comrades back home. Vicente stood, his hands in his pockets and his posture slouched once more, and looked to the ground around him. Moon's gaze was fixed on the unpredictable future in store beyond that moaning maw into the darkness.

"Vicente" Garuda called, "will you not come with me?" Vicente stayed motionless. The deep dark holes in his head, slanted sadly over his human, skeletal grin. He shifted around slightly, indecisively, and finally turned his head with a tilt to the tall Hollow.

"I think I'll stay here for a while" Vicente said "and just walk around....." He and Garuda exchanged a lengthy stare. Vicente's eyes shined with a determined resolve and spun within his head in the motions of whirring, gear-powered thought. He was deep within his own mind, watching things transpire before they began, and he saw Garuda's feathers fill the air in his huff of retreat moments before it had actually happened. And so, Garuda and Margarita Moon returned to Hueco Mundo alive yet failed, two Hollows without any extraordinary tale to tell whatsoever but that their friend stayed to sigh and walk along the human's paths.

Vicente did indeed sigh, watching the Garganta slam shut and seal the only portal he had to return. Stricken with a sharp and swiftly alleviated sense of regret, Vicente turned himself to walk along the beaten dirt path away from the Unohana manor that laid across the foothill flats and within the dense forests. He lurched forward and walked with a pace he had never before tested, surprised at first that his bone-white feet could carry him so quickly.

"Haaaaa" he sighed. "This world has its share of interesting qualities, that's for sure. I can predict myself having a very...insightful stay here....." And thus, Vicente the Hollow began his walk.

* * *

Three days passed. The manor underwent its repairs and the dead were properly paid their tribute as their spiritual essence traveled through time and space and all indescribable dimension to live again somewhere else, as someone else in the World of the Living. The injured were given care and healed to the best of the abilities of the expert medics and kido specialists the Unohana manor kept, including Rei herself. And while many recovered and rested from their arduous days and nights of fighting and wear and tear, Shin and Hoji stayed just as energetic as ever, sparring every day at least three separate times. They would eat, spar, rest, eat, spar, rest until they were ready to retire. Suichi joined rarely just to stay within their loop of understanding each other, but ultimately stayed to himself to practice his kido in the special training facilities within the manor.

Jin, meanwhile, ignored the fighting and stayed in the garden for most of his time. Rei hadn't taken the time to approach him properly just yet, but after four days it had been long enough. She found him watching the lotus blossoms floating in the pond and walked the stone-cobbled path to meet him. She stepped slowly, smiling and savoring the joy of meeting him again after so long. With a long press of her eyelids she stopped and sat on the bench next to Jin.

"How are you doing, Ishin?" Rei asked.

"....." Jin did not reply. He just stared at the rippling water filled with floating lily pads holding the unbloomed blossoms.

"I'm sorry" Rei said. "It's been too long, hasn't it? What name do you go by now, might I ask?"

".....Jin" he replied. "I am Jin. Death said so." Rei smiled. She glanced across the garden to Shin and Hoji, who were sparring with a sash tying them together by their right ankles, bare fists wielded against each other.

"Come on!" Hoji growled. He rushed in and Shin retreated, reading his movement and calibrating his motion to match each swing and step with a fleeing counter. Hoji swung punches, straight and swift, until Shin stepped through them, right under the jabbing arms, and into Hoji's guard. Shin delivered a powerful straight right to Hoji's gut and followed with a rising, full-bodied uppercut to Hoji's chin. Hoji managed to deflect the uppercut and intercept it with his arm, saving face and retreating by leaning away. Shin was on the offensive now and swung quick jabs at Hoji's face. Then he threw for his throat which fell to short. Finally he connected with a punch to his chest.

"It's all about strategy" Shin said "and movement. You're moving too lateral." Shin suddenly changed his footing. His left foot went forward and to the side. Shin's right foot rose up from the ground and follwed until the sash binding him to his partner was tight. Then he stomped down and found himself at Hoji's totally exposed side. He ducked down with his back leaned far forward just as Hoji ducked with his knees to block. Shin's fake worked. He gripped Hoji in a clench, holding him with his arms around his block and his head, then slid his right foot to hit Hoji's. His leg was swept out from under him, his balance was lost, and his weight was thrown all over Shin's shoulder as he threw himself backwards, carrying Hoji's face into the ground under his arm.

Shin detached his grip, rolled forward and snatched away the sash as he returned with a calming breath to his feet, the sash over his shoulder. "There" he said to Hoji, whose face was half-buried in dirt. "You're defeated. Now you need to meditate on just what the hell happened." Hoji pressed his hands to the ground and pried himself out of the hole, falling down to his stomach with his arms crossed in front of his dirty mouth.

"Tch" he scoffed. "I already know what I did wrong. I don't need to meditate for it!" Shin gave him a light kick with the side of his foot as he passed. Hoji watched him leave for the mansion again, grabbing his upper robes from the ledge of the porch where he had placed them.

"You never know" Shin called "when you'll need to kill someone with your bare hands. You need to learn these things, Hoji."

"Go preach to the trees, you damn lecturer" Hoji shouted as Shin left. He could see and hear the arrogant scoff and smirk on Shin's face as he walked away, pulling at the open crease of his robe to straighten in out. Hoji scoffed once more and pushed himself up onto his hands. He spun his legs around and sat with grunt in a meditative pose, pushing his knuckles together and closing his eyes. He began to think, envision the fight he just had, and evaluated twelve different counters to protect himself from Shin's side-step advance and overpowering over-shoulder throw. Hoji grinned as he thought and continued to think, planning out scenario after scenario for the next sparring match he would be in.

Rei and Jin watched their whole scene, Rei with her complacent and maidenly smile and Jin with sparkling eyes of admiration.

"Death is so strong" Jin said. "He's an amazing fighter, and his sword is so powerful too. I'm so lucky to have met him, don't you agree **Miss Rei?**" Rei was startled out of her smile and looked down at Jin with surprised eyes. She had thought, honestly, that he had forgotten about her. He looked over his defined shoulder to her with his childish eyes and wide, flat smile. Her eyes began to shake with proud, relieved tears and she blinked them away, smiling again.

"I do" she said. "Shin Kenpachi is indeed a strong, interesting man. If I hadn't met him, well...." She paused and sat perfectly still, her refined grin and solemn eyes shining out her thoughts. She placed her finger to her chin and started thinking, staring up at the sky for a moment. "Well, for all the trouble he's brought me, he's also done his fair share of help around here. I guess I can't be entirely displeased with him."

"You don't like Death?" Jin asked. "Why not?"

"He is too conflictual" Rei said, turning back down to Jin. He just blinked blankly and she laughed at his clueless face. Jin turned fully around and stood up, shading Rei with his enormous size. She looked at first in horror, then in shock, then drifted into a reserved sadness that she hid with a quick brush away of the tears with her thumb.

"What do you mean by that?" Jin asked. He crouched down at his knees and looked directly at Rei's face, hoping for a hint of emotion to speak to him. He had only known maniacal desire, anger, wrathful vindication and sheer malice to radiate from a person's face. He had never directly experienced sadness on the faces of those who had taken him away so long ago.

"Oh...." Rei sighed, covering her mouth and turning her tearing face away from Jin. She stood up and turned her back to him, leaving him puzzled and curious. _Ishin....you poor boy....

* * *

Today was not a day of fighting for Suichi. But it was still a great day to train. He placed himself in a room in the mansion and sat, his blade tightly gripped in its release position on his lap, and a frightening chill all around him. His matted hairs struggled under the layers of unwashed, oily hair to stand on end in the cold, his skin was pale with chill and it seemed that his eyebrows had frosted over, but he didn't shiver and his breath was just as calm as it was plainly visible. Each breath long and measured, held in for minutes at a time before release. He was so utterly determined to act upon his want to become strong that he left his body to this wasting cold, all of which he had produced with kido in a kido-sanctioned section of the training barracks._

_I'm doing quite well for myself_ Suichi thought. _My internal organs are working well enough to compensate for my body's lack of movement. I feel warm inside and know that I'm cold outside. In truth the cold seems to have chilled my skin so much that it feels tighter all over my body. My **Fuyugomori-Chinshi **is coming along grandly. Now for the final step. Cooling my mind, silencing my thoughts, and entering total suspended animation. Here goes...._ Suichi gave out one final conscious breath. Hours passed afterward. He didn't move and drew scant breaths. His mind had shut itself off and offered not movement or synapses of thought at all. Suichi was frozen in time, suspended animation was achieved.

That was all shattered when a mysterious force descended from the ceiling on a thin wire. A man wrapped from head to toe in bandages, wearing tight-fitting garments bound to his legs and wrists by black wraps, came down from the ceiling, upside down and hanging on a wire so thin it was barely visible. In one hand he gripped the wire and slowly lowered himself down with slow, careful gliding releases of pressure. In his other, at the end of the length of string, was a blade with no edge, a weapon resembling a **sewing needle.**

His descent was silent and perfect. He stopped just as his head was a mere inch away from Suichi's hair and took his needle in a firm grip, holding his little and ring finger in the eye while gripping it hard with his remaining two fingers and thumb. It traveled silently and swiftly through the frozen air, past the hanging man's head and to Suichi's neck. He drew the needle away, ready to pierce through Suichi's cold skin with a single, deadly stab.

"Boo!" Suichi shouted. His eyes shot open and the frost from his brow was shaken off with the sudden excited twitch that he gave. He shot to his feet, headbutting his would-be assassin dead on the top center of his head, jarring him from his calm state of presence while Suichi fell forward and rolled away, landing back onto his feet and hands in a low, crawling guard with his sword held tightly to his face in his right hand. The man fell down from his string, caught the ground and somersaulted backwards. He grabbed the wire and jerked it down. It fell in a pile from the ceiling and ended finally in a small metal ball that he held tightly in his other hand.

"I see you can stay alert" the man said in a calming and charming voice "even in such a deep state of meditation. I was growing concerned that you might not be getting enough practice."

"An assassin of my caliber" Suichi began "technically needs no practice." He spun his blade with the flick of his wrist, slicing a visible figure eight in the icy dust of the air. He flash-stepped from view and reappeared, his blade hand switched, and made a reverse-grip slice for the man's bandage-guarded neck. The man dodged away by jumping, leaving his wire loose on the floor under Suichi. He held his weapon, Needle in one hand and Spool in the other, spreading his arms for the full length of their span.

"Stitch!" the mysterious man called, "_**Nuiito Tou!**_" His sword, already released, took the command to return itself to its proper starting stage. The wire coiled suddenly into a razor-thin opening in the ball he held and the string almost instantly caught Suichi's leg. The man let go of his needle-blade and it whipped along with the string, circling Suichi's foot, making a cutting whiz as it spun around his thin ankle. The thread tore and cut at Suichi's flesh all the way until the length of it had been returned. He was bleeding, very slowly for his blood was barely warm inside him. Suichi glowered at his foe and fell to his knee, taking his injury seriously and ending the fight.

"Ah" the man sighed. "I guess I went to far, did I?" He took his needle sword by the eye, the thread spooled all into the ball which had attached itself to the round, blunt end of the needle, and he flicked it with short cutting motions with his wrist. "I do apologize, Suichi. It wasn't my intent to kill or hurt you. I'll stitch that up for you posthaste if you like."

"Please" Suichi said, rolling his pantleg up to show the deep, bleeding gash the wire made.

"Kido Cancel" the man said, holding an open palm. He made brushing strokes through the air with it, parting the icy crystals that hung about as a dirty mist, until he had made the appropriate magical kido mark sealed inside a circle. Two long dashes crossed over each other as an X which extended from the circle bordered in each corner by small sealing kanji drawn with speedy fingers. They read, in a circle read counter-clockwise from the top: 'ki' 'do' 'ke' and '' "_**Useru, Oni Reiki!!**_" With but the wave of his hand the chill was gone, the air was clear, the temperature was regular and Suichi's body was cast over with a sudden swell of warmth.

The man made a swoop down with his needle held in hand, ready to draw away from the ball holding its spool of wire. He pierced through Suichi's torn ankle many times, threading his way around his held-up leg and sealing the cut from bleeding anymore. He pulled the thread through and through until the skin around the suture could be no tighter and clenched the spool in his fist to return the thread. A sealing power brought Suichi's skin back together but left the pain for him to deal with. The spiritual thread stayed in his leg and sewed it perfectly shut, then returned to the spool leaving Suichi's leg unscathed.

* * *

"Thank you" Suichi said, bringing his foot down to the floor. The man walked forward, disengaged his shikai and sheathed his blade back in its scabbard before sitting.

"You've at least mastered control of your kido" the man congratulated. "Even unconscious I could tell the room was being carefully maintained with the precise control of a kido master."

"I'm far from a kido master in general" Suichi said, sheathing his own sword. "I'm a master of my element, but ice isn't the end-all element. I'd say Death or life, if it exists, would be the ultimate powers shinigami can wield."

"I'd agree" the man said. "So, with my power to heal through my sword, would you say I have an ultimate gift?"

"Your aura is too thin for me to tell" Suichi said. "Then again, I'm not the same genius that Lady Unohana seems to be at seeing people's auras."

"Hmm" he hummed in agreement. "It seems not..." They sat for an extended silence, two men so frightful in skill that the awkward silence brought upon them only made them wary of the other's next move. Suichi moved first. He got up, bowed politely and left the training room. As soon as he exited he felt an immense rush of power kick up in him. The kido-sealing room, made with wood magically reinforced to intensify the pressure given off by kido and make it nigh-impossible for the untrained to execute spells from inside, had dulled his perception to the unsealed outside. Suichi looked at his hand and lazily formed a ball of solid frost from his own kido-enhanced aura. He canceled his pressure and it disappeared in the warm, real air.

"Where are you off to now, may I ask?" the polite bandage-clad assassin asked. Suichi turned to him and yawned.

"I think I need more hibernation, to be honest" Suichi said with a chuckle. "It's a bit early, but I'm going to take a rest in my quarters. I hope I'm trusted enough to treat myself to some rice later if I wake up after supper."

"Don't be foolish" the man said, grabbing Suichi's hand. "I'll save you plenty of food from dinner in case you get hungry and bring it to your room." Suichi's face had drooped in a look of strange disgust. He hadn't planned on letting his hand be held by this man at this or any other point, and the joviality he sensed behind those bandages only drove the discomforting point further into his mind. Suddenly the man's hand left Suichi's and went into his robes where he pulled out a small device resembling a nut shell split in half.

"I am here" he said, holding it up to his ear and turned away from Suichi. He paused to listen to the other end. "I have him here, as a matter of fact." Suichi stood at attention before him. He offered him the shell and Suichi held it to his ear.

"_Suichi_" Rei Unohana began, "_I'd like to have a word with you and Shin as soon as possible....it regards Jin._"

"Of course, Lady Unohana" Suichi agreed. "Has Shin been made aware of this yet?"

"_No. I'm afraid I haven't been able to ask him yet_" she said with a tone of regret. _"If you could, would you bring this to his attention?"_

"I will" Suichi said. "Where shall we meet?"

"_In my quarters"_ she said. _"Come as soon as you are able with Shin. Thank you very much."_ The walnut was silent. Suichi held it away and looked it over. He saw no earthly pattern in the swirls and caving hollowness of the tiny object. It was man-made, he could tell, and at the very least it carried its own feint kido-based aura to work. Suichi only pondered over it for a moment before handing it back to the man.

"Thank you" he said, stowing it again. "I trust all is well between you and the gracious Lady?"

"It should be" Suichi said. "Excuse me. I have to find Shin."

"I will assist you" the man said "and steer him in the direction of Lady Unohana's quarters."

"Yes, thank you" Suichi said. He turned and flash-stepped through the hall. The man sighed and flash-stepped away completely. Rei Unohana waited in her room, hands folded over her lap and tears on her solemn face...

* * *

Fuyugomori-Chinshi: Hibernation Meditation.  
Nuiito Tou: Sewing/Suture Sword  
Useru, Oni Reiki: Vanish, Demon Aura


	83. The Parable of Guilt

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Suichi entered through the delicately patterned sliding door and held it open for Shin, who followed after him. His cold, deadly gaze entered the room before him, cooling off the heated tension of the room so lavishly decked from wall to wall in silken strands. Grand tapestries, gallant and graciously colored, hung by notches in the walls from the ceiling to the floor. The tatami mats were soft to the touch of the foot, woven from special reeds that never lost the feel of their liveliest state. In the center of the room were three seating cushions whereupon Rei Unohana in the most diligent and serious manner, sat facing the entrance to the room. Shin took the seat on the right. Suichi sat on his left. Rei waved he hand in the air and, from the corners of the room, her servants fled and shut the door behind them, chased down by Shin's gaze.

"Huh" he said. "I didn't even notice those guys." Suichi tapped him. No wasn't the time to be ungrateful, he knew. Shin turned back around and sighed. They both bowed to Rei in respect and she bowed back.

"Gentlemen" Rei began, "I have a very grave request to ask of you. It is not grave in any sense that can come to my mind. In my own terms and understanding, it is a grateful, charitable task, but to men like you, Shin, it is something that I'd dare not ask under ideal circumstances." Shin took his sword, still in sheathe, from his hip and slammed it to the ground beside him. Rei followed his actions closely and curiously. Shin folded his arms inside the sleeves of his robe and gripped them tight.

"Go on" Shin said.

"What are you doing?" Suichi asked. "She hasn't even requested anything yet."

"Depending on what she asks" Shin said "I may have to hit something, and I'd rather not strike at a woman unguarded with my sword, no matter how outraged I am. Therefore, with my arms like this, I'll have to tear the sleeves off my robes before acting, which should give you or her enough time to subdue me." Suichi's face went pale and his eye twitched.

_Is he serious!?_ Suichi thought. _Can he not see the woman he's addressing sitting in front of him, right there, in plain sight!? **Is he stupid!?**_ Suichi looked at Rei, who was glaring at Shin, an uncomfortable look for her to have towards another. Shin wasn't fazed. He glared right back, matching her intensity without the slightest increase of pressure palpable. Suichi sat rigidly, stunned by the sheer emotional tension in the air, and gulped. _Maybe I'm the idiot....for not already leaving...._

"It regards Jin" she said. "The orphan boy I asked you to rescue for me."

"You sure he's a boy at all?" Shin asked with an uneven cock of his brow. "He's pretty big, even for a man."

"What is physically ailing him" Rei said "is but a byproduct of a much greater problem, one that I wish for you to correct." Shin braced himself and took a sharp breath in. "I want you, however you can, in whatever way it would be possible, **to separate Jin from his sword forever.**" Shin tore his sleeves and shot up to his feet. Rei stayed seated but clutched her hands in her lap. Suichi shot up and drew his sword with a leap in Rei's direction to defend her.

"Calm down, Suichi" Shin commanded. His sleeves fell in piles to the floor, leaving his bare, muscular arms exposed and his robes ripped at the shoulders. "Just doing that was enough to calm me down past the point of needing to punch her. I'll be fine, if a bit mad." Suichi wasn't in any place or mood to argue. He just nodded, sheathed his sword, and returned to his seat silently dreading the coming exchange. "You were right in being protective. There's no way in all total hell I'd carry out such a request."

"I understand your position" Rei said as she slowly rose to her feet to meet Shin on equal standing. "I can't agree with what you represent as a warrior, Shin, but can you at least listen to my reason for my request instead of calling it off as a trivial plea for peace?" Shin lowered his shoulders and straightened his back. Suichi hadn't even noticed how far forward he had been leaning until he was standing erect again.

"Jin is still a boy" Rei said "mentally. Physically he has outgrown himself which was enabled by his runaway spiritual pressure intensity. He manifested a sword at a very early age and never got control of it. The spirit in his sword overtook him and drove him mad as a child. He was brought to me far too late to recover fully so I did all that I could to simply seal away the power deep inside his body. I amplified his aura through a meditative ritual and sealed his sword **inside his own chest** so that it would no longer influence him to destroy as it had."

"That makes sense so far" Shin said as he crossed his arms. "That also explains why his body acts like mud, I think."

_You either understand or you don't!_ Suichi thought. _Quit being confusing, Shin! Depth doesn't suit you!_

"Still" Shin continued "I can't see the benefit of asking a warrior like me to do what a genius like you couldn't do. How are you so sure that I can silence the destructive voices in his head without killing him?"

"Faith" Rei answered. Shin scoffed and grinned at her. He took it outright as a joke. "Besides that, regardless of the strength of Ishin's aura, yours can cancel it out and force him to submit."

"Ishin?" Shin said. "You mean Jin? His real name's Ishin?"

"Yes" Rei said. "His willingness to accept something so foreign as a new name and position is worrying me. I feel that his capture and subsequent brainwashing have impacted him in dire ways that I cannot hope to correct."

"So don't try" Shin said. "Just let him live like this. Have you seen him? Has he tried to destroy anything out of madness with his swords inside him? He's fine. He's happy. Let him be and be glad he isn't so beyond hope that he tried to kill you and everyone else in a nostalgic fit of sudden memory re-surge."

"What?" Rei said in disbelief. "How can you not see the obvious problem? He shouldn't have to suffer through this. He's an innocent boy, manipulated by forces beyond his control. I'm only asking you to reign in the power and control it for him so that he can break away from the control of his madness and regain his regular self again!"

"You're asking me" Shin said, leaning in, "to take away a part of his soul that is built within him already. You're asking me to uproot the source of his power and stability and expect him to be fine afterward. That's like asking a gardener to trim away all the roots of a tree and expect it to flower next spring." Rei drew back and turned her glare away, down to the floor. "Isn't it possible that you can't handle letting go of a child once he gets enough power to break away? Are you scared that he'll find a greater purpose in fighting than in peacefully living his life at a complacent level?"

"Hey, Shin" Suichi said, shooting to his feet. "That's enough. You've given your point already." Shin turned to him and went back again with a sigh. He scratched the back of his head and shut his eyes tight to rub them.

"He's right" Shin said. "I'll shut up now...." Rei turned back to him as he took his hand from his face and saw his eyes open again. The coldness returned. A gripping hand of death extended from him and grabbed at her chest, pulling her fears and chilling her spine. "**But I won't do it. Not for you....**" With that the meeting was over. Shin turned and left quietly, taking his sword from the floor and laying it across his shoulders while resting his arms on the scabbard like a rack. Suichi sighed and picked up his sleeves, bowing apologetically to Rei as he left. Rei sank down into her seat and lowered her head.

_I knew he would do that_ she thought. _I knew, and yet, I still just had to be sure....Shin Kenpachi, regardless to what you say or do, I retain what I said. I have my faith in you.....

* * *

Shin patrolled the halls for a while, in a hot, slowly venting pace of anger. People naturally stayed out of his way for fear that his blade may come singing out from its sheathe to cut them down in some needless act of pure malice. Shin eventually tied his scabbard back to his waits and drew his robes out from his sash so a sleeveless coat billowed behind him as he walked. His shadow trailed along the walls like a long, bustling black fire surrounding a skeletal frame, like a dark-skinned monster made of nothing with shining white eyes peering through the ever-moving tattered cloth and flames of death. Shin slowed his pace as he neared the garden and walked out onto the porch of the manor to sit and admire the distant, overcast sky._

"It's gonna rain" Shin said. He wasn't assuming or predicting. His tone was commanding, and he further elaborated it by holding his arm up to the sky and grabbing at the clouds. "Now, come forth....I summon rain!" He threw his arm down and waited silently. Nothing transpired. Just a cool breeze rolled past and billowed the torn fringes of his coat. Shin returned his arm to his lap and leaned his side against a supporting pole to keep the awning roof up. "Nothing, huh? Guess my power is really limited after all...." Shin rested his back to the slender column rod and relaxed. For once he was as relaxed as he had ever been. No thoughts of violence stirred in his docile mind. Shin smiled in peace, even as the silent footfalls of a master assassin approached.

"Shin" Suichi called. Shin opened his eyes and looked up at Suichi who was standing firmly and sternly with a resonating aura of purpose he hadn't seen before. Suichi threw down Shin's torn sleeves and forced him up with the draw of his arm. Shin slowly recovered to his feet and brushed off the back of his pants to face the oddly serious Suichi with a glare just as commanding and powerful as his. "I feel you're being too rash in your decision not to help Jin."

"I feel like killing someone" Shin said "because I was interrupted in the most calm and meditative moment I've had in ages."

"Try it" Suichi said. "Find out just how much I've been holding back from you, if you want..." Shin and Suichi glared powerfully into each other's eyes. Shin's deathly, fear-provoking gaze was met with an icy, uncaring, unbiased nerve that was frozen harder than steel. Shin scoffed the stare off with a grin.

"I can find that out in better ways" he said, admitting defeat. Suichi kept his glare to keep Shin in place. He wasn't moving. He wanted to listen to suddenly-serious Suichi talk.

"Think about it rationally" Suichi said. "Rei is concerned for Jin's health because she doesn't see the same warrior that you and Hoji do. She sees a little boy who she raised and healed and protected and she can't get over that. She doesn't see him as a fighter. She can't see how he can benefit from gaining control of his own power now that it's a part of him."

"I know" Shin said. "That's why I'm outraged."

".....really?" Suichi asked. A silence passed and a cool wind blew. Shin turned fully around and tilted his head.

"Looks like rain, huh?" he said. Suichi pulled his shoulder and spun him back around. Still, he couldn't help but smile, because he knew that he had Shin totally cornered against the edge of his own mind.

"She's asking for your help" Suichi said "because she knows that, in refusing to help in the way she sees as right, you'll find a way that will actually work! You don't understand the subtleties of what mind-games she's trying to play."

"Obviously not" Shin said. "If there's a game to play that I can't act as a war there's no way I can win it. War and fighting is all I'm good at, Suichi. I'm a warrior, blind to anything that isn't holding a blade."

"So you can see Jin's problem" Suichi said. Shin shut up though his mouth stayed open. He shifted his eyes back and forth, trying to find an appropriate way to respond to such a rhetorical remark. "The problem is he can't hold the blade at all. The blade holds _him._ He has no control over it. It's spirit overpowers his and makes him insane when he fights. Surely you noticed that."

"That could be a good thing" Shin said. "Sometimes it's better not to be held back by common sense..." Suichi saw how shallowly Shin was trying to turn a problem into a positive just to avoid the problem altogether. Suichi made a brash assumption and backed a step away from Shin just in case a face-punch was his immediate response.

"You have no idea how to help him, do you?" Suichi asked. Shin looked away and sighed.

"I have an idea" Shin admitted "but it isn't the best one..." Shin looked back and grabbed his sword at his side, palming the handle, tapping the sword hilt rhythmically. "When I fought Jin before, somehow, I was able to disengage that guy's hypnotic sword-possession that he used to control him. I thought it was Shikei, acting independently, using some new skill I hadn't been aware of before. I think, by hitting with the blunt side of my sword, I can cancel the effects of shikai or at least the effects of kido. Effectively, I can bring death to spirit pressure by hitting it...."

"You think you can do that to Jin" Suichi asked "and separate his conscience from his sword long enough to teach him control over his sword's influence?"

".....I didn't even know I could do it" Shin continued, still talking about his first discovery of the technique. "I haven't tested it out lately, either. Suichi, if I didn't know I could do that, how did Rei?Did she just know, or is she really a genius?"

"You thought she wasn't a genius?" Suichi said. "Of course she's a genius. No one else in the world has her capacity for reading the invisible aura of a shinigami or Hollow."

"Huh" Shin said. He crossed his arms and stared at the floor between his feet strangely. "I just thought she was being flattered for being rich."

_How stupid is he going to get!?_ Suichi demanded. _Like, really stupid? Does he have a limit? Am I going to have to stop him myself!?!?_

"What the hell" Shin said, brushing past Suichi. "I'll see what I can do to get as close to right as possible..." Suichi turned and watched him walk away, down the hall after the fleeting pursuit of a mad an unstable, childish energy. Eventually, just before Shin went out of sight around a corner, Suichi followed after and joined him.

* * *

Hoji walked through the halls topless, as usual. He was so proud of his body that he couldn't help but show it off every once in a while, and now was one of those whiles. He strut, leaning deep back as he walked, nodding to the men who passed him and waving at the girls with sparkles in his eyes. He could tell already. The girls wanted him. It was a majority of the girls he wanted that wanted him, and all for the same reason. He saw no problems in dealing with women if he had the physical capability, but the only thing holding him back was honor. It wasn't even his honor, but the drastic sense of impeding that Shin's honor cast on him.

_Damn it_ Hoji thought as he straightened up in an empty hallway. He brushed his thumb against his nose and snarled. _I don't think there's a woman here besides Rei who can take me on in a fight, and she's out of my league! Tch. Stupid principals, always getting in the way of p-_ Hoji was distracted by his thoughts to the point where he bumped into someone. It was a light brush for him but Natsumo was shocked and jostled back a few steps.

"You alright?" Hoji asked. Natsumo corrected her glasses and tilted her head up at him as she breezed past. "Tch, Oi!" Hoji shouted. "Hey, don't be bitchy just because I bumped into you! I asked if you were alright!"

"I am fine" Natsumo called, not breaking her gait, "now please watch your mouth. In case you forgot, children sometimes roam these halls."

"No they don't" Hoji said, though he was now alone, "kids aren't even allowed up here, are they?" Just then Hoji turned around, and from around the corner came Telly guiding a small group of jumpy, excited children. She caught sight of Hoji, who to her looked sparkling and bright with a manly aura of raw power and confidence, and she waved with a discrete blush.

"Hello, Mr. Araijin!" she called. Hoji waved and grinned, nodding at her and smiling to the kids. "Children" Telly said, stopping the group, "this is one of the men I was telling you about. His name is Hoji Araijin. Could you all greet him, please?" All the little boys and girls, so young to be witness to the horrors of war and abandoned by those who had died in the ceaseless conflicts, all looked up to Hoji with the same neutral respect that was expected and taught of them by the diligent workers of the Unohana manor.

"Hello, Hoji Araijin" they all greeted.

"Hello, children" he said back. "Say, Telly, what's going on?"

"I'm taking some of the younger children to the garden" she said. "Rei wanted them to get out of the orphanage wing while they cleaned up the main entrance after...you know."

"The fight?" Hoji said. Telly shushed him and drew in close.

"We don't want the children to know there was a fight" she whispered. "It may end up in a wide-spread panic and epidemic of bed-wetting." Hoji cringed. He forgot that kids sometimes do that when they're scared. He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned away.

"Well, don't let me keep you" Hoji said as he started past the group. "You've all got your places to be, I'll just be off for my next-"

"Hey Mister" a boy said. Hoji, not one to deny anyone's call of his attention without proper reason, stopped and turned around. The boy was small and young and sucked on his finger as if trying to savor a flavor to a meal he had not too long ago. Hoji turned on his heels and crouched down to the boy's level with a sincere smile hurting his jaws. "You gots no hair" the boy plainly said. Telly jumped. She had seen the way Hoji exploded before. She treated bruises and cuts that he made on the drunken men that insulted his head, and she cringed to think of the child's fate. She horrified herself with the image of an animal-bodied Hoji ripping the boy apart like paper in his mouth, then eating him and becoming a Hollow with a bald head and a tail on his chin.

"Hehehe!" Hoji chuckled. He held his pigtail in front of the boy and waved it in front of his eyes. "I don't have much, no, but I do have this!" The boy followed the whipping pigtail and made a grab for it, but Hoji let it go and whipped it back behind his head with a quick jerk of his neck. He then stood up with a mighty fist planted at his hip and pointed to himself with a pump of his strong arm. "This hairstyle and the secrets behind it were inherited by me from as far back as my great-grandfather. All the great, super-strong men in my family had their hair exactly like mine! This pigtail symbolizes how powerful and strong and awesome I am!" Hoji then leaned back down and pat the boy's head a few times. "When you become a man like me, a powerful, decisive man, I'll let you wear this pigtail with the honor and pride of an Araijin **man!**" The boy's face lit up. All the boys of the group cheered as Hoji waved away for his final depart, his pigtail trailing after him and whipping on its own like the black tail of a proud tiger.

_Thank goodness_ Telly thought with infinite relief. _I thought he was going to flip out!_ Hoji's composure didn't break a bit. Backed by the cheering of admiring boys, he turned the corner of the hall and carried on with wings on his heels.

_I am so very awesome_ Hoji thought with his head held high. _So awesome am I!_ Hoji piled chest-first into Shin and was knocked down to the floor. Shin just stood, treating the bump as a breeze, and looked around for what caused it, finally spotting Hoji on the floor.

"Oh, there you are" Shin said. "Come on. We're going to see Jin."

"Tch?" Hoji grunted. Shin grabbed his hand and pulled him up, then walked with his cape billowing behind him. Hoji hadn't seen his robe torn so stylishly and became almost instantly jealous. "Hey, no fair! I can't always be shirtless! Don't take all the good looks for yourself, man!" Shin raised his arm up and threw it forward, beckoning Hoji to follow. With a "Tch" he obliged and ran after him, out of sight from the kids and towards the main gate. Suichi followed behind as well, passing under Hoji's radar and then apathetically into it as he pulled forward to march by his side. Shin's duteous march increased in the pressure of each step as he neared the doors to the front court. The guards standing at attention drew the doors open for him, seeing full well his intent to kick them down.

Shin and company stopped just outside the gate, where Jin was standing staring at the huge wooden blockade doors, his mouth agape in awe. Shin placed a hand carefully on the hilt of his sword. A stoic and uncertain strain flashed in Suichi's eyes. He wasn't sure what was about to transpire, but he trusted Shin.

_Faith_ Suichi thought _is all you've got right now, Shin. Don't waste it, don't discard it; make it work._

_Are we having a picnic or something?_ Hoji thought. _Man, I'm hungry. I don't know why but I'm hungry for fish...._


	84. The Break of Innocence

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

In the orphanage wing the kids were all playing and talking and playfully running around the floor inside. The outside was still too dangerous for them to wander out into right now. Who knows what Hollows may be still stalking the forest border, waiting for an easy meal to fill their guts and increase their power? The kids were upset over being held in on such a nice day, but they didn't complain. They just played, like kids do, the way Rei wanted them to. No force or power or anger at all, just joy and happiness. A circle of twelve were kicking around a leather-bound ball in their sleeping hall when a man entered the room, initially ignored.

"Get it!" the long-legged girl called as she kicked it clear across the room. A young boy stepped back to get it but he missed and it bounced right between his legs. He froze and let out a relieved sigh as the ball rolled behind him. Then, in his relief, he grabbed between his legs and grinned.

"Thank God!" he exclaimed. "That could have been bad!" The children were laughing as he got the ball back. The girl who kicked it scoffed and waited impatiently. The boy picked the ball up and kicked it off to the side. Another boy intercepted it and kicked it across the room. A girl kicked it gingerly and it rolled across the circle where another boy punted it. Across the circle the previous girl flinched away from it while another boy made a daring head-height interception and kicked it again to the long-legged girl.

"It's mine!" she shouted. She jumped up and kicked it into the ceiling. It bounced down and was on course to slam into another smaller girl's face. "Ah! Watch out!" she called. The girl flinched and ducked down, quivering under a long shadow. The rest of the room moved away in a sudden panic. All of them but the long-legged girl, who was in a dreadful shock. He mouth was shaking in fear as she tried to form words to express what she felt, trying to push past the lump in her throat.

"Caught it!" Jin announced. He held the ball over his head, just under the ceiling above, and grinned as he balanced it perfectly atop his blood-red woolen hair. The kids were initially shocked, and afraid, but at his innocent expression and perplexingly humorous stature, they eventually warmed up enough to approach him. Jishida, a young boy with his head shaven and his eyes beady, grabbed Jin's pants and tugged at them. Jin lowered himself and came face-to-long-and-narrow-face with the boy, smiling until he smiled, then smiling wider.

"Mister!" Jishida said with a grin. "Mister, are you a shinigami like Mr. Shin is?"

"You mean Death?" Jin asked. Jishida shrugged. "Yeah, I'm Death too!"

"Ooooooo!" the kids awed in admiration. The long-legged girl had fallen down. Her legs rested flat on the floor and her arms braced her body from tipping full forward. "Wow! That's amazing!" a boy called.

"Have you fought lots of Hollows?" a girl asked.

"Mister! Where's your sword?" a boy eagerly asked.

"He must kill them with his bare hands!" another pointed out, stirring up more awe. Jin just bashfully grinned and laughed with them, a giant to them all. The girl still sat in the corner, doubled over with a sickness of fear. Jin noticed her and flattened his smile without losing the observant wideness of his eyes. He got up and paced the four steps across the entire room to her. She looked up, started silently and moved her arms behind her to keep from falling back. Jin grinned down at her sympathetically.

"It's kinda scary in here sometimes" Jin said. "I remember there was an opening in the wall I used to use when I got really scared. Sometimes taking a walk outside alone calmed me down. I wonder how long it's been though...." Jin walked over to the wall where he had appeared the night of the Hollow invasion and placed a steady hand upon it. He tapped the wall with gentle pats, shaking the loose boards of wood next to the window. His face lit up and he crouched down, further and further until he was on his hands and knees, then his chest and toes with his chin just above the floor. He smiled and slid a board out of place on the wall, then slid the entire wall back like he was opening a door.

"There it is!" Jin said.

"He broke the wall!" Jishida exclaimed. "Wow! He's super strong! Even stronger than Hoji is!"

"Hoji?" Jin asked. He rolled onto his back and leaned his chin onto his chest to look up. "The bald one?"

_He said it_ the kids thought, having heard the rumors of what the words would provoke in the shinigami. _He's brave!_ His admiration only increased.

"Hey!" the long-legged girl shouted, stomping her powerful foot to the floor. "I hope you're planning on fixing that wall, you jerk shinigami!"

"Ashina" Jishida said with worry, "don't be so mean. He's not a bad guy, right?" Jin rolled his body back, placed his palms flat beside his head, poised his legs high up in the air, then gently rolled onto his feet with a forward lean.

"I remember that wall" Jin said in a blank daze "being like that all the time. It was like that when I was a kid, you know."

"What?" Ashina scoffed. "No you weren't! You're a shinigami! Why would you ever be here?"

"I used to be a kid" Jin said. He moved his hand to her forehead, freezing her with a deathly worry. "I was about that tall. A little shorter than you, actually. I wanted to take a walk but the guards wouldn't let me out, on account of Hollows in the area...but I didn't care. I knew what they said about me. That I was a monster. That I was a freak too strong to handle. If they couldn't handle me, all those tater-robed minions of death's hand, then what good could a Hollow do? I was safe with myself. He even agreed. So I loosened the boards and slid them out every night I needed a walk and no Hollows ever bothered me. **Because they knew.**" Ashina was shaking. Jin was so close his rice-scented breath was bearing down on her and forcing its way into her lungs. His eyes had gone white and wide and his lips parted like the slit of a fish mouth as it filters through the water.

"Knew what?" Jishida asked. Jin turned around with a happy smile and shrugged his shoulders.

"That I was too strong" he said. "Hollows scare just like anything else, it's just harder to get them scared!"

"Well how do you scare them?" A boy asked.

Blackness.

A sudden wave of pressure came into the room, rolling across the floor like a wave of pure dark energy. With it came the retreat of the floor's slight dust, accumulating at the far wall and splashing up against it and outside. Jin looked over with a wide-eyed expression. All the kids were shocked still. In the doorway stood three men, all next to each other in a small line, blocking the whole door to the wing dorm. On the right was Suichi, leaning against the wooden frame. On the left Hoji, standing with his fists on his hips. Both of them smile, keeping their moods jovial and carefree in face of the children.

Shin wasn't. He simply stood, the most pale-inducing apathetic glare across his features, and gazed at Jin.

"Jin" he began, a voice as cold and hard as steel, "come with us for a sec. **We need to talk.**" The sudden wave was directed solely at Jin, who ignored and smiled at the death-pressure.

"Okay" Jin said. He was up with a bound which tipped his head against the ceiling, startling him a bit, and strolled over to Shin and his crew. Together they marched out and closed the door gently behind them, letting a cold afternoon breeze sweep into the room and knock some poor, feint kids over.

* * *

Shin and company escorted Jin to the front gate. There they stopped, and with a sigh, Shin began.

"...wait" he said, "where's Hoji?" Suichi darted his head around, searching for the furious shinigami, then rolled his head on his neck in frustration.

"He got lost" Suichi said in a dull expectancy. He turned and ran back inside to search. A cool breeze drifted past Shin and Jin, who now stood opposite each other in the courtyard of the front gate. Jin was smiling and slouching forward, carefree and happy. Shin had his arms crossed and was coldly pondering to himself the words that would allow him to manipulate fate most efficiently.

"Nice day, huh?" Jin said, awing at the sky.

"Jin" Shin began. Jin lowered his head and stared intently at Shin, ready to absorb his every word. "You may not want to hear this, but I'm not the kind of guy who considers other people's feelings when I talk. Rei wants me to cancel out your swords somehow and nullify their hold on you. She says your swords make you aggressive and, well, crazy. After a failed attempt to force you to learn to control them by sealing them inside your body, which was apparently another experiment that amplified your natural Earth aura to the point where your body imitated Earth physically, she gave up hope of you becoming a non-hostile little boy for her to dote on."

"....Rei did that?" Jin asked. He pressed his hand to his chest and passed it through into his body to touch the end of his butchery blade. He felt the twinge of violence hit him, just the residual feeling of aggression and anger that he felt when he prepared to grip the blade whole and let flow the rage and innocent malice through his veins. He drew his hand out and looked it over. The tips of his fingers were becoming red in expectation.

"Seems she did" Shin said. He drew his sword and brought a great wave of worry to Jin's face. The scabbard clattered to the ground and Shin held his sword, blunt side inward, pointing at Jin. "My sword has the ability of Death. It can cancel and end anything, including the effects of kido and even the release of swords. Since your swords are constantly in release state, hitting them with the blunt side of my sword would revert them back into their regular form...." Jin slowly descended onto his knees and placed his palms on the ground. He was near prostration but kept his head up and his hands very tense, balancing most of his eight through his arms. Shin spun his sword around and stabbed it into the ground at his feet. Jin looked up in confusion as Shin crossed his arms once more.

"Here's the deal" Shin said. "I'm looking for fights no matter where I go. If I can fight Rei one-on-one I'm going for it because even if I don't win it'll be the greatest fight I'll get to be in. I'm constantly on the search for fights like that. I live to die, that's the entire creed of my existence. That's why I train. That's why I'm strong. It's the sole purpose of my sword to cut down the weak, and the only reason of my body to fall to the stronger. I'm willing, and ready, to fall to anyone who can outdo me in every way possible. Therefore, in my travels, there's a sufficient chance that all with me will die. That being said, will you still follow me?"

"Sure" Jin said. "Can I get up now?"

"I wouldn't" Shin said. Jin lowered his head and his back, going low to the ground in a pounce-ready crouch. "Rei wants you to be safe. She still seems to think that you're a weak, undefendable, impressionable little kid. What do you think of that?"

"I understand her" Jin said, his tone entirely changing, "however, I know that I'm strong, and that's all that matters." Shin stared deep into the abyss of Jin's eyes. He saw many things, many swirling patterns and colors and emotions swimming around. He could also see the tension in his stance. He was like an animal on the defense, ready to counter, not directly attack. Shin kept himself static, not moving towards his sword as he wanted to do, and considered whatever alternatives he may have to act upon. Jin pushed himself up and stood straight, smiling down at Shin with a shade over his gently curved brow.

"It's alright" Jin said, tilting his head. "If I'm following after Death, I can't expect to live forever, right? Even if someone dies, it's alright. I'll be fine with it. I mean, even if I die, Death wouldn't stop and weep for me. He'd just carry on and fight harder and harder! So that's what I'll have to do, isn't it?"

"And you can handle that?" Shin asked, gripping his sword again. Jin nodded excitedly. Shin grinned and retrieved his sword from the ground. He picked up the scabbard and sheathed it back against his hip. "Well, that's your choice. You're going to have to stick with it. I'll help you learn control if you can make me stronger. **Let's bleach the world with our enemies blood, Jin Ishin.**" Jin grinned wide and brightly.

"YAY!!" he cheered, throwing his arms up with a little jump. Shin smirked and turned for the gate. Mystery surrounded him as he kicked open the wide, thick wooden barricade, leading out to the wide path that led through the forest. Jin followed promptly after. Suichi and Hoji arrived a bit too late and ran to catch up.

"Where we going now?" Hoji asked as he ran.

"Somewhere horrible" Suichi said with a grim, tired look. "Just like always."

"TCH!" Hoji scoffed with a wide, excited smile. He smacked Suichi on the back, nearly throwing away his balance and laughed. "That's the spirit, man! Think positive! Who knows what great fights are out there? The beasts to kill? The bastards to cut down? Tch, I'm already excited!"

"Don't get too excited now" Suichi said. "We didn't bring any food..." As the four left the manor behind them once more they were observed intently from the window above the main entrance. In that window, watching intently and judging silently, was Rei. Behind her, standing guard, was Telly.

"Shin has left" Rei said. "Prepare an emergency warning for the on-duty guards. Lock down all the dormitories at once......"

"Yes my lady" Telly said with a bow. Rei sighed and turned away from the window.

_Has he done this intentionally_ she thought _just to strike against my trust? I placed my faith in him. Is this his way of turning it down?_

"My Lady" Telly said, seeing her obvious worry. "Is something the matter?"

".....No" she said, determined to keep the matter private. "Seeing Ishin after so long, only to see him depart so readily for the battlefield again. It is upsetting. You would understand if you knew the child...."

"He's a child?" Telly said in surprise.

"No older than Shin, I suppose" Rei admitted, "but I have known him for a very long time. My mother knew his family, when she was alive. To see any of those who I have taken into my care be forced out into the world like that, only to die and kill...."

"Excuse me, my lady," Telly began, "but I don't think Ishin was forced just now. I read Shin's lips from the window before you arrived to see them leave. He said that it was 'his choice', so in the end, I can only assume that Shin gave him the choice between either option." Rei was frozen. She had never taken the consideration of such a possibility, but now she understood. Just as quickly as she had been fallen with depression, she recovered with a graceful smile. "Milady?" Telly asked. "Should I go to give the orders?"

"Yes" Rei said. Telly bowed and flash-stepped away, her pace urgent. Rei walked calmly through the halls, taking graceful, slow steps, in high spirits. She rose her head to the rafters and saw through time to her past, to the smiling child that Jin had once been and the fields of grass where she had seen him play. A tear streaked her face.

"I suppose" Rei said "I am my mother's daughter...." She brought her sleeve up and wiped the tear from her face to balance on the black of her robe. "I simply can't let go of something I love...."

* * *

"Uhhhhhhh" Shin groaned. The first obstacle had been reached in his senseless, aimless new journey: a fork in the road. Two paths diverged, one leading right into the forest and the other left into the forest. The only real choice was the forest, but the indecision of which foot-trodden meander of dirt to take had left the company at an utter stall. Suichi stood atop a tree and looked longingly back at the barely visible manor that hid behind the foothill. He scanned the distance and saw the scar of a healing crater high in the hill that had been made the in the nights previous.

"That was a good one" Suichi said. "Who knew we had that kind of power with us all along?"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed impatiently. "Come on, Shin. What's the hold up? We've done this before, remember?"

"Yeah" Shin agreed. "Still, somehow, my brain seems frozen. I can't decide which way is the quickest to get somewhere that I don't know."

"Maybe we should walk through the forest in between" Jin said.

"We're bound to run into another road eventually that way" Shin argued. He crossed his arms and dipped his head in intense thought. "What to do...." Suichi landed beside him with a pound.

"I've got an idea" Suichi said. "Release your sword."

"Okay" Shin said. He drew his sword and held it, right hand high on the blade and left on the grip. "Reaping time, _Shikei!_" His sword erupted in a black fury of light that spiraled and twisted upward and formed a thick, black scythe blade. His weapon was revealed and transformed in the awing presence of young, innocent Jin.

"Amazing!" Jin said. "That weapon suits Death the most!"

"Meh" Shin said. "It's harder to fight with than you think." Shin leaned away and measured up his weapon, taking it in with new perspective as a weapon of death, a reaper of souls. He could see the bony hands of its inner spirit coming out of thin air from behind the shaft and the flaming, moving cloak of darkness the beastly skeleton wore. Just as he moved his eyes up to stare into the dark holes of his bone-white inner spirit, the entire thing disappeared and the air was still and void once more.

"Now set it straight up" Suichi said "and spin it in place. Whichever way it falls, that's the way we'll take." Shin grabbed the shaft with both hands in the same place and torqued his shoulders up to spin the weapon with a jerk.

"I like that idea" Shin said murderously. He grunted and let loose his force, powering the weapon to spin in place until a twister of dust kicked up under it. A second into the spin the shaft began to waver to the weight of the blade, but it corrected itself and kept spinning, moving towards Shin who backed straight away. The scythe stopped and stood perfectly straight up in the air. Time passed. Uneventful moments of watching the static blade that seemed stuck in the ground went on. Jin got bored and drew lines in the dirt. Hoji scratched his forehead on his red X and scoffed.

"Tch" he began. "I think it's messing with you, Shin." Shin had an angry, pulsing vein on his forehead just above his temple.

_Son of a bitch_ he thought. Finally a fated wind blew. Shin spun around too quickly and couldn't judge its direction, but he knew its feeling! It was a divine wind of fate, guiding him to the strong, to the elite, to the fighting! The scythe fell down, towards Shin, pointing through the short of woods that led back to the manor. Shin and company stood still as the wind continued to blow silently. Shin's face was clouded with a shade of grim, twisting rage. Shin stomped on Shikei's blade.

"Are you screwing with me!?" he demanded as he ground his heel into the metal.

"Don't overreact or anything" Suichi said.

"Pardon!" a voice called. Suichi turned to see the man of bandages, the assassin-styled scout of the Unohana Manor, perched on a tree branch with a scroll in his hands. Shin turned to him with his rage still spilling over and picked up his scythe.

"What's up, guy?" Shin asked. The man hopped down to the ground in a bow and rose up to toss the scroll Suichi's way. Suichi caught it and unfolded it with a flick of his wrist, catching the unfurling paper in his other hand.

"Sorry to impede your journey so early" he said graciously, "but we've just been informed of a situation that may interest you sirs very much."

"How so?" Shin asked.

"Not that we had much a journey to impede...." Hoji said aside. Shin jabbed him with his scythe shaft.

"It seems" the man continued "a group of men from the Seireitei territory are inquiring as to your presence in the outlying areas. They seem to be on a sort of man-hunt, as the witnesses who brought this to my attention described, and the leader was very particular in nervously handling his sword in its sheathe when he spoke of you. Traits, I'd imagine, to be lent to a hunter rather than an admirer."

"My admirers _are_ mostly hunters, it seems" Shin said. Moved behind Suichi, sending a slight chill through his spine, and read the scroll over his shoulder. It read of the detailed report taken from the speech of a villager in Xierd Leek, the nearest major settlement, who described the four men traveling together searching for Shin. One was young with rusty brown hair and followed closely after the leader of the group, who was menacing with long, straight black hair and orange eyes. Two others seemed to follow in their own smaller group. One was large with dark skin and red hair who spoke in a very proper manner. The other was very muscular with a blond mustache and was very loud and verbose about himself. A vain man, he was plainly described as.

"Huh" Shin grunted.

"Seems like a dangerous group, eh?" Suichi said. Shin took the scroll, rolled it up and tossed it back to the messenger.

"No names?" Shin asked.

"One was mentioned" the man replied "but to whom it refers is a bit of a mystery right now."

"What was it?" Suichi asked.

"**Netami**" he said. Suichi's throat closed up in an instant and he found himself teetering on a precipice of unconsciousness. He was about to faint, but the presence of Shin kept him awake. The constant, demanding pressure of Shin's deathly aura kept him alert, as alert as he ever was when his life was at the risk and mercy of any pursuers who caught him in his deadly acts of assassination. That same pressure seemed to spike upon hearing that name and the trees quivered, shedding leaves in fear. Jin caught all the leaves he could before they hit the ground and placed them carefully in the boughs of the trees that he could reach. Hoji was just confused.

"Well, well" Shin began. He swept his scythe across the ground and rested it gently on his shoulder. No dust kicked up. It was all too heavy from his extreme pressure to move anymore. "Suichi, looks like your reunion is a lot closer than you thought it might have been! Where are they now?"

"Not sure" he said. "All that I know is they were last seen in Xierd Leek, approximately two days ago. No one was able to give any information as to where you had gone, however, so it is possible that they are still wandering about, looking for you, assuming that you would be close by."

"Or" Suichi said, now lifted from the extreme nervousness that had paralyzed him, "they know where we are, and they're on their way here as we speak. In which case, the best course of action to meet them would be to go on the road to Xierd Leek again."

"Not sure what to say here" Hoji said. "I guess, if it's up to me, we should go meet them head on and see what we can do for them. They came all this way, it's be rude just to leave them hanging, right Shin?" Shin was smiling. A frightful darkness came overhead. The rainy clouds were moving in from the distant horizon, rolling across the sky and threatening all below with their dark shadows. The ground beneath Shin became dark with their shade as the sun was blocked from view, but even then Shin's shadow seemed to stand out as a separate, all-black entity with a bustling cloak of flames in the dirt. In the darkness, Shin's eyes shone brightly, as did his anxious smile. He swung his scythe and pointed it down the road that had once been taken to Xierd Leek and sheathed the weapon once more.

"Let's go" Shin said. **"Death can't wait forever..."**

"Ideally" Suichi moaned "I think it can." He began to sulk off after Shin, with Hoji towing Jin by his thick arm coming soon after, but he stopped for a moment and turned to the bandaged man who still stood in the middle of the road. "Just who are you? I know you work with Lady Unohana, but I never got you name."

"Ah, that" he said. "Let's never mind that for now, Suichi. I'll tell you who I am when it's more proper for you to understand..."

"I see" Suichi said.

"And then later" he continued "you can tell me **your real name** as well."

"That may never happen" Suichi said with a shake of his head. Then he was off, a flash step to down the road until he was caught up with Shin and company. Death stalked down the forest path and into the darkness of the trees, after another unknown soul.

But is death ready to accept such a soul this early?

* * *

Out in the wilderness, for the umpteenth night after countless days and weeks of pursuit, after so many sleepless days of harnessing contempt and destructive will, Netami and his company were finally upon the final leg of their journey. The end was in sight. Death darkened the skies, doom surrounded the clouds, a lining of pure oblivion bordered all the land. Netami could feel the pressure blooming in the distance. Horoshi softly wiped his blade with a swab of fluffed cotton. Kakugari laid back against his hands and listened to the grass grow around him. Senshi stood with his chest flexed and his arms tight against his hips.

"It is getting dark" Senshi said. "Perhaps finding some shelter would be a good idea."

"Indeed" Kakugari bellowed out. "Would it not behoove us to place a shield above our heads? Cold is the last thing we'll want to slow us down once we meet this nefarious lout Kenpachi."

"There's bound to be caves in the hills" Horoshi said. "Netami, what do you say?" Netami didn't speak. He just sat, on a rock, looking over the rolling distance of hills and plains and the distant forests, the glowing lights of Xierd Leek far behind him. His eyes shone out a murderous red glow from beneath the black silk curtain of his hair. A rain drop fell and landed right beside him. He glared at it and looked up. The rain began softly but picked up harshly and beat down on the grass and rocks of the plains. Netami just sat and let the rain cut away from him, his presence so utterly powerful that only the droplets produced from the raindrops that exploded over him would fall and wet his hair with glistening beads of water.

"Netami!" Horoshi called. Netami turned and saw Horoshi running for him with an umbrella fashioned out of bamboo and a thick patching of leaves. "You're still out here? We've found a cave and built a fire! Kakugari and Senshi will eat all the food if we don't hurry back!"

"So hurry" Netami said. He turned back and remained silent. Horoshi sighed and stepped back, watching Netami for a signal of remorse in his decision, any sign that his mind would soon change and he would follow, but nothing occurred and he continued to sit silent and stoic, perfectly patient and anticipatory of the immense power coming his way. "It's been too long since I felt this....the strength, the drive. Pure power. Pure killing intent. It's truly been a long time since I had a **fair fight....**" Netami smiled. His eyes shone black and orange. The sky over him turned a dark black. The pressure of a genius shinigami, a prodigy killer, the highest angel of the Tenshioni, obliterated the rain and surrounded him in the cool swirling mist that the shattered droplets produced.

A man who knows not of Death. Death itself. They will meet and the skies will tremble. The skies will fall! In this, the Golden Age of shinigami power, such meetings can guide the paths of war and reshape the world of the Feudal Era of the Spirit Realm. This time there will be no territories or distant respects at stake. Two men will meet, their swords will clash, their blood will spill, and a victor will walk away. The loser will not. Such a meeting will guide the hands of the few, strongest men, but the cost of life may be too great for the victor to bear....The powers continue moving forward, unafraid of the end of their roads, seeing nothing but the infinite sky overhead. They reach for the sun to blot it out! The darkest warriors shall meet!

A destined fight is coming!!!


	85. Message of Terror

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Upon reaching the first leg of their journey through the very same woods, the shinigami group had realized something they thought they had never truly forgotten. The woods were full of demons. Hollows attacked in groups at every peaceful clearing, under every suspiciously clear sky between the storming clouds of rain. They sprang from every cave, every deep pool of water, from behind every thick tree and from the oddest heights of the trees, completely unnoticed until their first attack and encroaching of spiritual pressure gave them away.

Just as quickly as they appeared to fight the powerful Shin and company, however, they were dispatched just as fast and either retreated to nurse their wounds or fell into silent darkness before the shinigami blades. One thing had changed, however, and that was their endurance. In a combined effort the shinigami had only totaled up to a few bodies over their questing trek. Out of all the ambushes, attacks and random encounters, only a few Hollows were dead and the four were exhausted. After clearing out a suitable resting place, Shin and his group sat around a dim, sudden fire and waited for the stern shinigami's next word. Shin leaned over himself with his sword scabbard resting in a lazy grip across his chest and shoulder.

"They're getting a lot smarter" Shin declared suddenly. "They've figured out how to fight us evenly. They aren't trying to actively kill us out there. They just want us to try. They're gathering information, scouting our capabilities, measuring our power and our style when we fight, and above that they're tiring us out and giving us nowhere to rest for too long."

"You saying these stupid things" Hoji blurted "are actually smart!?"

"Well" Shin said "they can talk, can't they?"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, cupping his chin to think with an angered brow. "Good point."

"You can't say you don't have enemies" Suichi said. "Remember El Diablo?" The air suddenly became heavy. Shin and Hoji's greatest loss at the hands of so embarassing a foe still sat unwell in the pits of their stomachs. Shin turned and made a guttural groaning while Hoji clenched and shook his fists.

"**That bastard Hollow**" Hoji growled.

"**I'll tear his body apart and throw him across all four corners of Hell next time we meet......**" Shin lowed.

"Yeah" Suichi said with an awkward shifty glance. "That's...probably why you have so many enemies. Not from the Hollow himself, but from the stories that already circulate about you. Hell, the Unohana manor was even attacked in our absence because the Hollow's thought you were there!"

"No" Shin said. "According to Rei, it was because they _knew_ I was gone, but your point remains valid nonetheless. Hollows have at least an equal sentient grip on society and the ways of things in this world as most shinigami do. How far the breadth of their knowledge truly goes as beasts from another world is beyond me, but I do know that rumors, regardless of the method, can spread rapidly. Like a plague. I don't at all doubt that Hollows in....Hollow-world know about me and actively hunt me down based on whatever stories they hear from other Hollows..." Shin rose his head up and scratched his chin. "Actually, that's the only way to explain what's happening right now, isn't it?"

"Hollow's have funny faces" Jin said.

"Yeah" Hoji said with a combative vigor. "And you like ripping them off, don'cha!?" Jin grinned childishly and nodded while Hoji gave him an appreciative sneer.

"Sometimes" Jin said, sitting up, engrossed by conversation, "when I rip off their heads, and when I look in their mouths, I can see **another face!** It's like they have **two face!** You know, **more than one!**" His overdramatic emphasis carried over to silence as all three men glared at him to shut up. He put up **two fingers** and pointed at his **face.** Shin sighed and turned to the forest beside him. The fire crackled with odd fanning strength. Shin and Hoji stood up and gripped their swords, ready to draw. Suichi did the same and stood on his toes in a knee-bend crouch on his stump. Jin just looked around. He didn't feel the pressure coming at them.

"One" Shin said. Hoji stepped forward. "It isn't attacking, even though it's in range."

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed. He began slowly drawing his sword out, the sound of metal against the scabbard whispering into the air. "He's probably on patrol to look for us on the main path!"

"No" Shin said, releasing his grip from the hilt and stopping Hoji's draw with a stern palm. "He's close enough to attack, just not powerful enough to make a difference....he knows we're here. He's looking for us..."

"Quite right" the Hollow called from the other side of the trees. Out from the dark border of the forest, accompanied by an ominously deep, hollow, distant roll of thunder was the Hollow. He stood no taller than Shin with double-jointed knees and tripod toes to stand on. His arms were long and lanky, bent back behind him and still scraping the ground with his calloused, three-fingered knuckles. His body was not that of a Hollow which fought often. It had a pot-belly and a skinny chest. Its thin, bony neck protruded up between his rounded shoulders and supported his head which was decorated with two horns tipped with spheres at the crown of its head. Its mouth was small and its chin was narrow. It had sullen, deep-set eye holes and dim blue lights shining from within them. His voice was calm and breathy as he talked to the shinigami, keeping an utmost respect for the infamously powerful men.

"TCH!" Hoji shouted. He was set to charge when a chop to the back of his neck sent him falling to the ground. The shock of hitting cold grass woke him back up. He looked to his side immediately and saw Shin's foot and straw sandal stomped on the ground just beside his head. Shin took command and glared down the Hollow, keeping a field of pressure that crackled with a rare stream of visibility around him. It was enough pressure that Hoji was used to it, but enough also to threaten the Hollow to keep his distance.

"What are you here for?" Shin asked. The Hollow clasped its thick fingers together and wrung his hands thoughtfully.

"Well" he began, "it seems that I was sent to deliver to you a message from my master, but in the frantic worry over our inevitable encounter, said message has suddenly slipped my mind. I'm afraid I simply cannot bring myself to recall what I was to deliver unto you....."

"Shock took the memory from you" Shin said as he advanced a step. He drew his sword half from its sheathe and held the cool blade right next to his face, a skull reflection shining back out. "You think shock can bring it back?"

"I dare say!" the Hollow exclaimed, waving its hands above its head. "Anymore shock and, surly, I will faint here and now!" Shin sheathed his sword and deactivated his pressure field. He walked forward, towards the Hollow. Hoji pushed himself up and glanced back at Suichi and Jin. They were calmly observing beside the fire. Hoji crossed his arms with a 'Tch' and watched as well.

"Take your time" Shin said as he got within the Hollow's arm reach. He crossed his arms and looked the Hollow right in his eyes with his flat brow and void expression. "Unless you've got friends en route, **I've got all day to wait." **Shin could see the nervous way the Hollow's eyes seemed to curve within the dark impressions of its skull. Shin stared into its frightened soul and the Hollow stared back, ever frightful of the dark death that stared him down, the power that stood before him, and the shocking truth of the message he had never forgotten in the back of his mind.

_If I tell him_ the Hollow thought, _who knows what he'll do to me!!!_ And thus a stalemate was reached...

* * *

The Hollow, begrudgingly, joined Shin's campfire and used its pressure to ward away the patrols and scouts still seeking to ambush Shin's group as they sat in peaceful negotiations. Hoji sat on the stump next to the Hollow, keeping a careful watch on him out of the corner of his eye. Suichi sat next to Shin on a log while Jin sat on the ground, staring at the flying embers of the fire.

"So" Shin began, "what do they call you?"

"All sorts of things" the Hollow said with a sweep of his hands in the air. "Grub, runner, worthless, scum-crap, hornless-head.....pitiful mule. That's the most stinging of them all to me."

"So you're a messenger, primarily?" Shin said.

"True" the Hollow said. "I've taken a liking to the name 'Rinoire', if it makes a difference."

"It doesn't" Shin said "but if you have a preference I'll go with it. So, Rinoire, what message did you have for me? Can you remember it?"

"Ahhhh" Rinoire sighed. He placed his fingers to the temples of his narrow skull and blackened his eyes. His pressure waved out in wide ripples through the air, like a signal. Shin countered with a controlled burst to stun him out of his meditation. "Ah! I apologize for that. The Hollow's aren't using me as a beacon. In truth, only those who sent me from Hueco Mundo know my pressure. Al the other Hollows hunting in groups are blasting their pressure to keep other groups away."

"Not unlike animals" Suichi said "howling to mark the range of their territory."

"I thought animals pissed to mark their territory" Hoji said. "Hey, Rinoire, do you do that too?"

"No" Rinoire said. "We just build to mark our territory in Hueco Mundo. Out here each nest that hunts together uses different signals, waves, methods, formations; we are very much a tribal collective..."

"Neat" Shin said flatly. "Quit stalling. I know you have the message for me in your head."

"Yes" Rinoire admitted. "In truth, I was so scared of encountering you and your group that I had withheld it from you since before we met. I must have your word, as a man and shinigami of honor and integrity for the love of combat, which I cannot give, that you won't murder me upon my delivery of this message...." Rinoire waited for what seemed too long as Shin thought in a stoic silence. Jin awed at the embers as they flew from the dim fire and watched them fly over to the border of the forest. There he saw two embers that refused to fall, or move at all, staying still in the air before the forest's darkness. He reached out for them and refocused his vision, seeing **two bright orange eyes peering through the darkness at him.** Hoji's ears perked and he stood up, drawing out his sword and walking over to Jin.

"You two keep talking" Hoji said as he posed with his sword drawn back over his shoulder and aimed down the nails of his extended forward arm and flattened palm. "Me and Jin will take these guys down."

"We will?" Jin said as he stood up. "I guess we should, right? Hehe...." His goofy laughter trailed off into his deep breathing as his bangs fell unevenly across his forehead. He reached into his chest and took a solid grip of the metal handle of his blade hidden within his body.

"Alright" Shin called. He turned eye-to-eye with Rinoire and grinned. His fingers all wrung around the hilt of his sword in its scabbard. He gripped it with sudden tightness and the metal of the blade rattled within its own casing. "So, who wants me dead?"

"A Hollow" Rinoire began "known as _**El Terror**_." The name rung on a terrible familiar note with the shinigami. Shin felt like, just by the name, he could see this Hollow in all its powerful destructive form standing just within the shadows of his mind.

"What's he look like?" Shin asked.

"Um...." Rinoire hummed, confused over Shin's bluntness and disposition against an obvious death-threat. "He's a tremendous Hollow compared to me. As tall as your red-headed friend over there. His back is wider, though, and he is much stronger in both appearance and practice. His arms are short compared to his body, though, and only have as many digits as I do. His legs are thick as the log you're sitting on and equipped with tremendous, powerful, obsidian talons. Muscular feet, like thick tree branches..."

"One sec" Shin said, holding up a finger of intervention. "Is this thing a tree-Hollow? Is he supposed to look like or represent a tree in any way?"

"No" Rinoire answered. "If my memory of the living world serves me correct, he more resembles a giant lizard. His mask, however, is easily distinguishable. It is crowned with horns with two thick, curling horns protruding above his narrow, reptilian eyes. His teeth are as sharp as sabers and thick as my arms, just as long as well. The maw stretches from end to end of his jawbone which can distend far enough to swallow a shinigami without once touching them with his fangs. He is a terrible monster that comes every full moon to this realm to feed on the souls of all those he sees in the Blood Plains and outlying areas, but now he plans to come with a more solid purpose. You, Shin Kenpachi, have awakened his wrath after you disgraced the name of the nest which he patriarchs by dishonoring his fellow Hollow!"

"Which one?" Shin asked.

"_**El Diablo**_" Rinoire said. Shin's lower lip descended while his teeth stayed grit. His eyebrows rose as high up as they could while his eyelids stayed half-drawn over his placid, emptied eyes. He groaned out dryly in great exasperation. "You do remember him, don't you? He is one of our nest's most powerful Hollows, next to El Terror himself, due to his ability to manipulate himself and the pressure of others."

"Yeah" Shin growled. "Yeah he is, isn't he?" Shin shook his face off and resumed his calm stoicism. He leaned forward and shifted his glance to the forest borders where the sounds of Hollows made their presence obvious before their pressure. "So El Terror wants to fight me, eh? Does he know where to look?"

"I was sent primarily to find you" Rinoire said "so that I may arrange a meeting place. He's not as barbaric a Hollow as you may think. He's actually quite civil at times. He's just.....ferocious in battle and loses himself to his namesake and despicable wretchedness which made him a Hollow to begin with."

"His inner human" Shin said. Rinoire backed away. "Fair enough. I'll arrange this with him. Tell him that, in the likeliest of scenarios, I can be found at the Unohana Manor. He can ask a Hollow named Garuda where that is if he doesn't know, or just follow the sky until the blackened edge of the world. That's where I'll be waiting..."

"Garuda...?" Rinoire repeated quizzically. "I've heard that name....but any image escapes my mind. Most Hollows know the general landmarks of the shinigami realm. I can impart what knowledge you have given me and inform El Terror of your plans."

"Great" Shin said as he stood up, scythe in hand. "Now, unless you think you can survive the crossfire, I'd suggest you leave. You're here as a messenger, and I don't kill people who bring me bad news from others. **I kill the others,** more often than not, but never the messenger. Beat it. Get back to Hollow World and rouse up that lizard-bastard nice and good. Tell him I want a fight both of us will lose hope in winning at some point during...Tell him I'm looking to die swinging!"

".....I'll be sure to relay all that" Rinoire said. As the shinigami prepared to fight he swung his long arms and gripped at the air. Hoji sensed a disturbing tear in the winds from his honed spiritual senses and glared over his shoulder as the Hollow's long arms opened a gaping hole in reality, a yawning void that groaned as it stretched and led to foggy darkness.

"What....the...." Hoji articulated. Rinoire glanced over his shoulder, his eyes now red, and let go of the maws of the Garganta he had opened, shutting it behind him with a slam. ".....that was....odd?"

"Eyes forward, Hoji!" Shin ordered. Hoji scoffed and took his blade in its release pose.

"Rip and Tear, _Torakaze!_" he called, prying his hands apart and whipping the winds that were his sword around his forearms, calmly forming his shining golden gauntlets with bladed inner-finger claws.

* * *

"What are we looking at here, Shin?" Suichi asked. Shin breathed slowly. His group was circled around their campfire, their only means of living warmth at the moment, one watching each corner of the rounded forest edge with their weapon drawn and fully activated.

"These are misinformed Hollow" Shin said. "They're geared up for a full ambush, no survivors. They want us dead."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Looks like they didn't get the battle plans!"

"No" Shin said, "thay're here on a different errand. They aren't after us, they're after anyone. I can even smell the dried shinigami blood on their teeth from their last attack. These are mad, hungry beasts we're dealing with." Shin stepped into his pose and pushed his blade toward the ground in a sudden swing of his arms. "Kill with insane amounts of prejudice."

"Just how I like it!" Hoji sneered.

"I'll make myself scarce" Suichi said as he flashed away. Jin had one blade out and his head was shaking on its unsteady support of a neck from the overflow of spiritual madness.

"Take it easy, Jin" Shin said. "Concentrate on controlling the actions of your blade, don't let it enforce its will on you. Just swing only when you feel like swinging."

"Riiiiiight" Jin lowed in a shaky, mad way. The first Hollow stepped out from the forest, crawling low to the ground with a long, tube-like tongue flicking in and out. It had no eyes on its smoothly ridged mask. This was more like a lizard that Shin had expected. It sought the shinigami on scent and taste in the air. Shin waited for the tongue to shoot out like a piston and stomped on it. The Hollow screeched before Shin could decapitate it.

"I declare this battle begun!" Shin shouted as he spun his scythe around his body perpetually. "Come one, come all! No soul shall escape dying today! **AAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!**"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Pompous bastard." A Hollow pounced from beyond the trees right into Hoji's bladed hand. Its mask split and bled before Hoji even applied pressure, which when he did crushed and destroyed the Hollow's mask entirely. A screaming face covered in black blood fell before Hoji and dissolved into darkness once more. "Huh. There _was_ another face under there...." Hoji blocked the swing of a Hollow's strong arm by raising his then snaked his fingers around the Hollow's wrist and cut off its hand. He stepped forward with his palms open and made rapid jabs, carving his five-clawed prints bloodily into the Hollow's skin with every jab and hit.

"Get a life!" Hoji shouted as he kicked the Hollow in the gut. All the blood came gushing out and Hoji got out of the way, letting it pool on the ground while he stood on one leg with his arms flexed and flared out, waiting for more to come at him as his latest victim dissolved. Jin was having less luck. His attempts to control his rebelliously overbearing blade were becoming less and less effecient. His method of attack had been reduced to short chops with his blade and powerful kicks with his legs while both arms tried to steady his hand.

"Urrgh!" Jin groaned as a Hollow clawed and snapped at him with its long snout of fangs. "I can't! I can't! It's no use!"

"Keep trying!" Suichi called from high above.

"!?" Jin gasped. He looked to the sky and pushed the Hollow away with another solid kick. "Death descends from the sky now!?"

"I'm on your shoulder" Suichi said, revealing himself from under a thin silken veil. Jin looked onto his broad right side and grinned at Suichi. "Shoot! _Haganerensa!_" Suichi's chain snapped into the ground with a punch of his arm, piercing through the Hollow's thick mask and killing it instantly. "Reload!" The chain spun back around his arm.

"Ooooo!" Jin awed.

"I'll give you back-up for now" Suichi said. "You focus on learning to control your sword and I'll fill in where I can."

"Alright!" Jin said. Now that his fears of loss in battle had been alleviated he advanced, taking on a full flight of four Hollows at once with his powerful body and arrogant sword.

_Well, that may be a stretch...._ Suichi thought. Shin was faring much better comparatively. All the Hollows that came at him after the lizard were of strong, thick-armed humanoid variety. Shin's scythe spun ever around him in a tight protective guard of powerful slashes and singing metal swings. His hands moved so gracefully on the shaft, pushing and pulling and acting as pivots to keep the rotation and kinetic energy prime. The Hollows that charged stayed just out of Shin's range but were killed or sliced open painfully when Shin leaned and extended his arms for a proper swing, going straight back to the rotation and gathering of energy.

"This style" Shin explained as he killed "is the result of our combined efforts. Both I and my sword, Shikei, have trained ourselves and each other in mastering this art of 'lethal movement'. I call it _Saishuu Serifu_. The Last Word technique of constant weapon movement to store and constantly use the power of inertia and weight mechanics of movement to deliver incredibly over-powered attacks as I move freely in battle. It is, thus far, unbeatable. The only force that can get through is sheer power..." Shin brought his scythe blade from behind his feet, with both his arms pulling and his body leaning forward, across his body in a wide, long reaching arc upwards and cleaved a Hollow in half from groin to forehead. He stopped with a group of startled and terrified Hollows just outside of his range with his scythe pointed up and his body crouched so far forward that his hand met the ground in an animal fashion. Shin glared his cold, dark eyes across his shoulder and began spinning the scythe again. He simply swung it across his back and handed it off to his other hand as he stood up, then passed and passed the shaft from hand to hand across his body until it spun freely and constantly around his one finger.

"**Any brilliant last words from you?**" he asked. The Hollows became furious and roared, rushing in again. Shin grinned. He swung out his arm and his scythe followed, cutting a deep gash through a Hollow's face. He then ducked a swing from behind and swung his scythe into the Hollow's arm, his body following as the arm flew off. Shin was spinning with his scythe now, adding to its gathering power, and knelt down to end a twist of his waist. His scythe swept across the ground and with raising straightening of his legs and an erect stance upward he carved off all the Hollow's legs in a bloody mist. It splattered on the bodies of the other Hollows and the ground all around them, but Shin stood dry with a manic grin and wide, battle-crazed eyes. He rushed one of the Hollows and cut his scythe deep into its shoulder. Then he pressed his shoulder high on the shaft and kicked his legs from the ground, forcing his body's weight onto the blade and powered it into the ground. He recovered instantly, ran across the gap with his blade dragging in the ground, and whipped it straight up, again vertically slicing a Hollow in two.

Hoji got to glance at Shin's fighting for but a moment and smiled.

"Tch" Hoji said as he crushed another Hollow's face in his deadly grip. "Now that's impressive. Legitimately..." Hoji turned with a growling sneer to the Hollows that had yet challenged him. With a new absorbed sense of vigor and blood-lust he jumped from his high stance on the stump and ran across the bloody grass, staining his white socks red with each furious stomp. He punched a dent in one Hollow's mask then blocked the attack of another with his left gauntlet. He stepped in and kicked that Hollow under its ribs, kicked it again to keep it down and pressed his fingers together to form a golden hand blade. He sliced the Hollow's head off and then cut it into many shrapnel pieces. He extended his arms out, palms open, chest relaxed, and walked very casually around with a flat expression.

"Well?" he said with his open, welcoming gesture. "Who's next?" None of the Hollows wanted to be the first to answer, but they found a second later that it wasn't their answer to give as Hoji wound his body with a step across his legs and slashed five mighty blades of wind into the air that cut deep into the Hollow's in front of him. Hoji ended with his right arm swung and his hand over his left shoulder, so he turned to his right and backhanded the head off another Hollow. His area had the most painful screaming and roaring of the others. Compared to Shin's effective, bloody massacre Hoji was simply messing around. His attacks were powerful without being lethal, where Shin was being both. Suichi and Jin, on the other hand, were silently dispatching their Hollows while Jin continued to learn his own control. He made simple chops and short slashes with his blade, not afraid to step into his attacks for more power, and managed to kill several Hollows without Suichi finishing them off. Suichi was, however, still doing the brunt of the work.

"Shoot! Coil! Snare! NOOSE!" Suichi's commands came in short yet rapid bursts that demanded so much his chain would loop around multiple Hollow necks and wind back so rapidly that their necks were merely gashed rather than severed from their bodies. Upon his reload he pressed his hands together and breathed out a chilling breath.

"_Bakudan: Chibi Kumokoori!_" Suichi opened his palms toward a group of rushing Hollows and blasted out a ball of ice. It exploded in a powdery fog that frosted the ground and froze the moisture on the leaves in the trees into ice. The Hollows were likewise chilled and drastically slowed in their attacks. "Practice all you like" Suichi said. Jin grinned, both happily and madly, and went to work attacking.

_Such arrogant power in the face of adversity. I wonder how your next battle will go..._ So spoke Shikei as both he and Shin stood in an empty ground, the mounds of Hollow bodies dissolving into blackness. Shin scratches his nose and shook his head to mess and style his hair. Then, with a grin and a tap to his shoulder, he replied.

"Don't go getting gloomy already" Shin said. "Even if death is the solution I still intend to keep winning and winning until I can take the sun from the sky. **Even if I die, I intend to win!"**

_Of course you do......

* * *

Bakudan: Chibi Kumokoori; Bomb: Small Ice Cloud_


	86. Inside the mind of Death

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"Rain" said Shin, "to cleanse the field of our enemies blood..." He held up a palm cupping in it a dark mound of matter and let the rain drops wash it out in a running mess of water. He held the hand high up so the rain could get to it faster and sat against the mound of endless destruction at his back with his scythe rested across his chest and on his shoulder. His sky was overcast with cackling skulls that spat rain from high above. Shin was within his own mind, his spirit within his sword. He sat waiting for Shikei with a loose mound of rubble in his hand symbolically draining away with each sharp drop of rain that hit it. The dark rain stained the white walls and dead ground around him with sinister blackness. The long ground at the mountain base had more sword marking graves as well as white, fragile crystal growths of crystal weeds.

A single sword stood out from the rest. **A broad, rust-colored paddle stuck in the ground like a tombstone. **Around it, at a distance, were many swords chipped or broken and some distance behind it was a spear driven with the tip into the dirt. Shin's graveyard had grown since he last got a good look at it and his mountain had added to its already cloud-scraping summit.

The substance had drained from his hand and left it pitch black. He swept his hand from his chin and across his face, streaking his skin black and pushing his hair up. The billowing dark fires of Shikei's robe bustled up behind him and encircled him. There stood the skeletal monster with his skull face surrounded by a hood of moving shadows and a cloak draped over his shoulders leading down to his waist where more shadows had wrapped around his waist and legs imitating a shinigami style of garb. His skin was bone white and its features were fiercely human, muscular and immense, arms thicker and body taller than Shin could hope to be. He was as tall as Jin at a glance. In its thick hands with black nails and black veins just under the surface of its rice-paper skin it held weapons. **Two scythes, the same length as Shin's, one in each hand.**

"Yo" Shin said as he stood up. He turned and stepped up the mountainous pile around him to stare Shikei in its dark voids of eyeless holes. Shikei looked down over its skeletal face at Shin, whose face was streaked with black water that ran down his face in the cleansing rain from the sky.

"Rain" Shikei said in its booming, pronounced voice "to bleach the world of your enemies. Rain to cleanse the blood from the grass. Rain to keep life in the dying world. Do you worship rain, Shin Kenpachi?"

"No" Shin said. "I worship myself. That's the only thing I'm able to place enough faith in to believe without reason." Shin smiled. He could sense the humor in Shikei's huff. Both mighty beings descended the mountain and set foot on the ground of piled dead grass. Shin kicked around until Shikei joined him, floating down on dead air with the billow of shadows coiling around his feet. The grass dried and became dust at the touch of his bone-white feet. "So the effect hasn't been completely killed, right?" Shin said.

"That man's sword" Shikei said "attempted to invade your own soul and corrupt your spirit. I had to fight it off, and that's exactly what I did. The foremost priority I had was protecting that field of swords you've gathered."

"What's so important about it?" Shin asked.

"You will find out" Shikei said "should you ever _need_ to find out."

"It's that bad, huh?" Shin said. "I'll believe it. In the mean time, what am I here for?" Shin walked forward and observed his world, leaving Shikei with enough time to take a stance with both scythes armed. He hissed a low and hollow hiss and forced Shin to freeze in place with his murderous intent. Shin smirked and turned around, spinning his scythe over his head and catching it with a rest against the length of his forearm, the blade pointed away from his body, gripped high on the shaft with only his right. His left arm was flexed forward neutrally, a counter-balance to his weapon's pose. He smiled.

"You can't get stronger alone" Shikei said. "Why else would I bother to help you unless it meant you were weak?"

"Is that all we boil down to?" Shin asked sarcastically. "Partners, fellow soldiers, in a maddening race towards the highest reachable limits of power?"

"No" Shikei said, pointing one of his pure black weapons Shin's way. "That is what _you_ are for. I'm here to make sure you don't screw up and die!"

"All means with no end" Shin said. He started spinning his scythe, going from hand to hand and letting it coil from forearm to forearm in a building speed and rapidity. His _Saishuu Serifu_ style was at work. Shikei just stood firm with the scythes tight in hand. He wielded them like swords, though they were weighted more like axes and functioned effectively as neither. His skeletal mouth opened and growled out a low and powerful howl. Shin tried the same, emitting a guttural growling. A black space grew between them where everything down to the ground died, and a deadly higanbana grew in the black dirt between them.

Shikei swung in for Shin's neck with both blades in a slicing guillotine fashion. Shin blocked, punching his shaft vertically in his hand and into the path of the blades as they swept together. They pressed their weapons together with increasing force and intensifying murderous glee. The flower wilted and the demons parted. Shin's face was streaked still with black but the pale of his face was outlined between the streaks of dark. Now the white of his skull under his flesh was shown. **They looked almost exactly alike for an instant.** Shikei's dark circles of eyes filled with a glaring white and steam hissed from his lowing mouth. A black ink leaked down from between his teeth and streamed to the center of his chest where it formed a circle.

Shin rushed in again, his scythe spinning, and made a powerful slash across Shikei's gut. Shikei spun away from it and attacked in succession with each blade. Shin's constant scythe motion blocked both attacks and kept him protected. Shikei stomped on the ground and broke the dry, dead tiles of rock under his feet. Shin was forced away by his sheer power and landed from the leap of retreat with his scythe circling his body. Shikei rushed in with a shout and started stabbing the scythe blades into the ground with far-wound punching stabs. Shin dodged the attacks with his scythe held in front, then suddenly stopped and jumped forward with a flying knee to Shikei's face. He stomped on the skull head with his other leg and flipped himself in the air. While upside-down, he lodged his scythe blade into the front of Shikei's left shoulder, carved into it with a slash as he fell and then jerked with his whole body to **carve Shikei's entire left arm from his bleach-white body.**

"We're just getting started!" Shin growled as he hopped away. Shikei emitted no sounds or signs of pain at losing his bulky arm and other scythe. He dropped his remaining weapon, picked the arm up **and ate it.** From out of Shin's vision the demonic spirit beast swallowed its own arm and promptly **regrew it from the stubbed hole in its side.** Shikei sighed.

"That's one victory for you" he said. "One. Out of the hundred you and I are about to fight, do well to remember that you've won only _one fight thus far._"

"You trying to make fun of me?" Shin said, still high and ecstatic from beating his own behemoth form. "I just lopped your arm off, dammit! Get serious!" Shin rushed in, his scythe high and the tip poised for Shikei's throat. Shikei thrust forward his knee to stop Shin with a stern kick in his chest. Shin ignored the pain and swung. The arc merely grazed Shikei's neck and opened Shin up to death. His arm holding the scythe from the far-wound and carried attack was far to his side. He jerked his hips and brought it back with the shaft held above his head. Shikei's blades both drove through Shin's back and out his chest. He gasped in pain and coughed out hot blood. His scythe dropped. Shikei withdrew his blades, kicked Shin away and then kicked his scythe near to his limp, twitching body.

"Now we're tied" Shikei said. "If we remain tied through all of this training I will consider abandoning you. Pick yourself up and fight. I can wait." Shikei posed himself again, his body open and scythes held by the middle of their shafts for better manipulation of trajectory. Shin rolled onto his shoulders and kicked himself up, his stomach marked with a deep black mark. He was fine, not to his surprise, and without hesitance he picked his scythe up and took a stance.

"We're going to be here for a while" Shin said. "I hope someone feeds me...."

* * *

"Is Shin alright?" Jin asked.

"He's training" Suichi said.

"He's fine" Hoji said. "I wish I had that kind of ridiculous concentration sometimes..."

"Really?" Jin asked. "Wow. He's aaaawesoooome!" Shin sitting with his legs folded and his sword held with both hands gripping the hilt before his chest, perfectly centered with his body. His face was calm and in a meditative trance. He stared into the blunt edge of his sword and it stared back. His living and fighting souls were connected, allowing him to train with the very spirit of his sword, a technique he had developed within the Unohana Manor along with Hoji and Suichi some time ago.

"I couldn't do it at first" Suichi said, marveling at Shin, who was being carried in his meditative pose on Jin's dragging robes. Though they were now covered with dust and small tears, Jin didn't mind. He was helping Death, his idol, so all worked out well. Besides, it was under Shin's orders that they lose no time in their quest for his challenger, and so his meditation was made mobile.

"Neither could I" Hoji admitted "but eventually I grew a pair of balls, became a man, learned that men don't complain all the damn time, and found out that my sword's spirit is a girl that can kick my ass with a limp damn wrist...."

"Ah, the good old lazy training days" Suichi said with a sigh. "I can't believe our venture is already close to an end."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Have some damn faith in Shin! So what if this Netami's a tough guy? Shin's tougher!"

"Netami" Suichi began "is stronger than the archaic translation of 'tough' you seem to be associating him with. Have you and Shin ever fought a man who had access to Bankai?"

"I think Shin did" Hoji said. "Before I met him, that is."

"Have you ever faced a man with his Bankai unlocked?" Suichi asked. Hoji faced forward with his arms crossed, his face neutral and thoughtful.

"Nope" Hoji finally answered.

"Netami unlocked his Bankai" Suichi explained "in the shortest time anyone's ever known. He's famous in the Seireitei and his own homeland to the north. He's a genius swordsman and kido-user. His blade is so infamous that no one has ever been able to learn its name in a fight because they never survive the fight. He's killed _armies_ alone with his Bankai. He's a monster of power, more so than Shin by a long shot." Hoji just whistled.

"So he's Shin after Shin take him down?" he said. Suichi smacked his forehead and rubbed his temples.

"You're oversimplifying things" Suichi said. "Kido-wise, how strong to you think Shin is in a fight?"

"Come to think of it" Hoji said, thinking again, "he mostly just trains his fighting and physical abilities. We haven't had any meaningful kido-sparring in a long time. Before we came to Rei's in fact!"

"My point exactly" Suichi said. "I'd be a bit more faithful in Shin if he was more balanced, but he's not as proficient as Netami is in kido. Physically, however, if it gets down to hand-to-hand combat between them, Shin's going to win. Sword on sword, Netami has the advantage. You see?"

"Yeah" Hoji said distantly. He turned to Suichi with wide, learned eyes and continued in an entirely serious voice. "Shin just has to disarm him!"

"And he'd do that why?" Suichi asked. "Shin isn't a man who fights in terms of survival statistics. He just....fights." Hoji looked back as he walked. He saw that Jin was listening intently with glimmering eyes and that Shin was still lost within his own world, a vague reflection of a mobile darkness shining in the reflective surface of his blade.

"Death is a very agreeably honorable man" Jin said. "He never even attack's a man's back, isn't that right?"

"That's true" Suichi said. "Netami just attacks without regard for honor at all. He fights to kill, sometimes for no reason at all."

"Man" Hoji said. "Shin just kills when it's somehow justifiable or when he's under attack. He's let plenty of people who lost to him live. He ain't that brutal of a man."

"I don't doubt" Suichi said "that he can become that brutal when matched with a brutal sort of personality like Netami has. It's all in his own skill. I can't tell him anything that he won't figure out on his own, and understand better than I do." Hoji nodded in agreement. Suichi turned to him ti try and search for sympathy but he just got a curious glance from Hoji in return, who was wondering why Suichi was looking at him. The curiosity wore off and the party marched in silence down the road again. Jin kept carrying Shin with the robe tied around his waist and smiled between his two traveling companions, deep in his own train of mad thoughts.

_I could kill one before the other acted_ a dark and sinister voice thought in Jin's mind _and then kill Shin to distract or shock them off their guard. Then I kill them too. I'd have to kill Suichi first, though, as he is an assassin and knows more than enough ways to kill a man instantly when provoked. Then...I.......FLowers!_ Jin stepped off the beaten track and leaned down to look at flowers breezing in the wind.

"JIN!" Hoji shouted. Jin picked up quickly and brought himself back to the others with Shin close behind, not that he had a choice. Jin stood tall behind them with a bright smile and distant eyes as he watched the thundering clouds roll over the horizon. The sky over them was an overcast gray with planes of soft white all blocking the sunlight. A dark and dreary day.

"How long will we be walking?" Jin asked.

"Another day this speed" Hoji said. "It all depends on how close to the town this Netami is camped out."

"Far enough" Suichi said "so that no one will notice him fighting, but not so far that he can't easily get back when he's done."

"What for?" Hoji asked.

"Post-kill celebratory slaughter" Suichi said. "He's **that kind of maniac.**"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Showoffy bastard, eh? If Shin leaves anything left, I'll have to give him a hell of a beating."

_You never listen, do you?_ Suichi thought with beads of sweat forming. _Netami's not a man to be taken lightly. He's.....he's too much for us all right now. Even if it's four against one, we'll all just drop dead...his sword, it's nearly unbeatable!!!

* * *

Netami sat on the ledge of a cliff path that ran around the high top of a hill. The lights of Xierd Leek shone out in the soft rain, clear as a dark and clear night would have them shine. He sat in the rain, his sword rested on his lap, his eyes dull and dazed into an fathomless distance. He was within his released sword, communicating with it, talking to it, training his power. Inside the encampment, a shoddy cloth that was over-worn from its constant use as a tent in their travels, hung by long poles of bamboo against the steep carve in the hill recently dug with a floor of woven reed tiles._

The other three were in their resting from their travels and hiking of the day. Horoshi sat at the edge of his shelter, where the rain fell down in gathered drops, watching Netami for signs of movement. Senshi was meditating with his sword, keeping it in its sheathe, holding it in a tight grip near the middle of the scabbard, hands close together, and eyes shut tight. Kakugari played Go by himself to the face of the rock wall and pretended that he was calmly battling nature. He won, all tiles black, and chuckled.

"Hahaha! Well played, earthen mound!" he said, patting the solid wall of wet dirt in front. "I've never misjudged the utility of our grand spectral plane of life! The reiatsu that composes all within this realm, who can say that it carries not the intellect of all its creatures as well? We are of the same earth, the same sky and air, the same vast oceans at The End of the World, who is to say that all which encompasses this place does not share in the glorious richness of our own intellect as well? Such thoughts, powerful and provocative, who could dare to venture their answers I wonder?"

"That old man?" Horoshi asked. "What's his name?"

"Yes!" Kakugari said, grinning widely. "Yes, Horoshi, yes! Once Netami has had his fill of vengeance and rampage, I shall venture forth to the mountains once again and call upon that mighty hermit for his grand, learned ways! Ah, the answers I will attain!" He stood up in his grandiose vocation and wrung his fists up to the low hanging, wet roof of his shelter. "The answers, I can feel them! The slithering silken strands of all energy, the force of life-after-life, I can feel it snaking through my hands! **I can feel it! The manifest greatness that fills this void of souls!!!**" Kakugari's fingers suddenly burst with blood fro mthin cuts and his orange-haired sideburns were cropped close to his jaw. As he reeled his hands down in horror the roof split and burst open above him into a rain of cloth scraps, letting a flow of water ruin his Go board and a battery of rain soak his robes. As he recovered slowly, absorbing the reiatsu through meditation and calm, controlled breathing, he turned to Netami who had swung his sword his way.

"Shame, shame" Kakugari said. Strands of hair fell from Horoshi's brown head. His face was plastered with terror and shock. Senshi remained in his controlled state. "Shame, Netami. You attack the entirely wrong man, you know. Despite my best efforts to remain calm, you continue to antagonize me without a purpose!" Kakugari stepped out into the rain and swung his arms out to his sides prophetically. "Why is that? What grudge do you hold against us, Netami, that every table meeting we hold must be about the inability for you to release your past aggressions and live your life properly!? Oh, I and many others have remained calm about it for quite a while, I can assure you, so you can understand that it is with no abhorrent singularity that I speak from. Your constant greed and pride has led to the inevitable slaughter of too many of our former members! Our organization was founded for a reason!!!"

"What?" Netami asked, turning and standing with his sword gripped in his hand. His soaking hair fell over his eyes and barely hid the killing orange light in his eyes. "To give the world something to flinch in fear over? To wreak havoc for a man that's never been there before? To destroy without aim? To win wars in the shadows? We're not about anything anymore, Kakugari. You're too old to see what the world's become."

"What?" Kakugari demanded with a snarl. Netami imitated his previous pose, his raw, defined arms held straight out to the side, his sword held down in his fist, and a wild grin peeking through the thick black curtains of his hair.

"**An aimless world. A perfect world. A world for the **_**manzenryuu**_** to flourish in!"** Kakugari drew away at the word. Netami lowered his arms and pointed his empty hand at his retreating ally. He jerked his head back and let his long hair fall over his back. "This Shin Kenpachi, no matter where we've gone, from the Seireitei to this rustic little town of impudent weaklings, is hailed and feared as a god of men who walk no path. He _is_ the Manzenryuu. Even those before him acknowledge his wealth of power and might and pure stopping power. If he were to find all the power he's let lay latent in the world, acknowledge his place as a king among all the bandits, disheveled thieves and vagabonds who lose their lives in the forests, he could **win this war alone!** I'm not about to let that happen! Kings and emperors and the leaders of all the regions that outlay these let their efforts fall to a prince of thieves that works to kill when **my prices are more than negotiable!!!**"

"Is that what this has all been about!?" Horoshi demanded, suddenly flustered and enraged. "You wanted to find Shin and kill him because he was a threat to you....business!?" Netami turned to Horoshi and gave him the same wild murder hiding behind his shallow apathy that he gave to nearly everyone else.

"What good is genius for free?" Netami asked. "Regardless who wins this war and rules the world, I'll still be as I am, a man apart, an island in the sea, solitary and stoic, able to impart my skill to whoever best benefits me, unhindered by loyalty or the grip of a distant, invisible hand. I will always be a free man, free to act as I wish, and free to refuse to be free in a world of men desperate to kill those whom they can't!"

"Your mind is sick" Kakugari said. "You find a perverse glee in the slaughter of innocents who can raise neither a sword nor a purse of coins to stop you, yet you will only act in any manner that resembles purpose when you've been bought! What manner of man are you!?"

"And what about you?" Netami asked, pointing accusingly with his sword. He spoke low and sure. "Kakugari, why do you raise sword to the world with us?"

"Out of prestige" he said. "I was invited among the first ring of the Tenshioni and have stayed on with Kingo, Sousuke and Koumoto since this group was created! Our purpose was always firm, to be upstanding warriors without service but to protect. Police against the crimes of war committed by the desperate, crimes such as you, Netami!" Netami sighed and turned his blade to Horoshi.

"Why do you fight, Horoshi?" Netami asked. Horoshi froze up for a moment. His fists were shaking at his sides. He wrung his fingers and tried to stop them. He bit his lip and looked to the ground.

"I want" he began in hesitance "to become stronger. I know that being here makes me strong, and that people recognize my strength....but that isn't enough. I want to be strong. I want to know what that kind of strength I can achieve with powerful people! I want to see true power, then attain it, own it, perfect it! I want power, so that when I go into the world of my own accord I won't be looked at like a kid out of place. I want power! That's what I want!" He roared "**I WANT POWER!!!"** His pressure suddenly erupted and crushed Senshi under the feeble hut. Netami's sword was even lowered by the blast and Kakugari was hunched over as if a rock had fallen onto his back. The rain resumed shortly after and frosted Horoshi's short brown hair with dew.

"Then I'll help you get power" Netami said. "I'm eager to see what you do with it...As for you, Kakugari." Netami paced over while Kakugari was still hunched in shock and drove his knee into his chest, forcing him to the ground with pain. Then he kicked him onto his back and softly stepped on his throat. "Unless you can define a use that I'm unaware of for you, **I'll kill you here and now.**" Kakugari was shocked silent. Horoshi was weakened and still fuming with a dim smile on his vacant face. Netami's sword drew ever higher in his flexed grip. Senshi was the only one left to stop Netami, and he was buried.

"STOOOOOPP!!!" called a boisterous voice. Senshi erupted from the rubble and cloth with an explosion of muscular power, flexing and brushing the blond tuft of hair on his head back as he walked to Netami's side. He gripped the man's forearm and **bent it.** Netami flash-stepped away, his arm normal again, and glared down the already glaring Senshi. "Let's all stop this trivial nonsense and talk things out. The tension here isn't unrepairable, but it is quite counter-productive to our means. We can quarrel at the next table meeting. Until then, Netami, it seems your challenger and unwitting rival shall not arrive this day. It is best to wait until tomorrow to fight, don't you agree?" Netami glared at him. He glared back. The pressure between them cracked the ground. Netami yielded and swung his sword to his shoulder.

"Very well" Senshi said. "There's a small grove of trees down this road and up the hill. I suggest, if we want to stay well for tomorrow, we go there and form some shelter once more." Netami was already walking. Horoshi caught up to him and walked three paces behind respectfully. Senshi helped Kakugari up with a groan from both of them and they glared down the road at the mad, black-haired man.

"That fiend" Kakugari lowed.

"Relax, friend" Senshi said. "We only need to tolerate him for so much longer, a day at the most." Kakugari rubbed his neck and shook his head.

"We should have killed him long ago" Kakugari said.

"The past is past" Senshi said. "What can we do that death won't do for us in due time?" And so the group headed onward, down the path, to lay in wait yet again for death to come walking over the hills....


	87. The Shadow cast by a Soul

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

In his frantic flight of barbaric fighting Shin knew of no score. His only mind was that of a warrior, fighting the enemy before him with pure wrath and baseless rage. His scythe sliced through the air in its rapid travel, spinning around his body in its circular arcs as he grabbed its shaft, powered its momentum, stayed steady arms to pivot the weapon faster and moved into the spinning to keep its energy up. His blade was a blur of black steel with a silver edge, a deathly shadow that streaked through the air. Shin stepped left, gathered his blade and all the energy it carried into a single hand and slashed wide, pushing the blades Shikei, his monstrous inner self, a being of bone-white with billowing black shadows of robes tattered around his legs, away from his center.

Shin spun on his heel with the remaining energy, grabbed the scythe over his head, and stepped in towards his opponent and leaned his shoulder with a roar into the shaft of his scythe. The blade powered through Shikei's flesh and a void of darkness was exposed beyond the bone white. Shin did not relent. He hopped away, spinning the scythe, hand-to-hand, from its initial trajectory and across his body back into a natural grip in both his hands before his torso. Shikei sighed with an admittance of defeat and brought up a hand to brush away the deep, black wound.

"That's that" Shikei said. Shin lowered his stance.

"What?" Shin asked. "Where?"

"That was match one-hundred" Shikei said. With a sweep of its strong white hand over its bone-white body the wound was gone and all traces of his fatigue from the fight were absolved as well. Shikei glared up at Shin through his menacing dark eyes with feint glowing orbs of white. "Shin, did you happen to forget how many matches you had won?"

"With that one?" Shin said. He placed the shaft of his scythe to the ground and leaned forward holding his weapon like a balancing cane against his shoulder. He thought with a finger cupped under his pouting lower lip and raised his head to stare past his sweaty-heavy bangs at the unnatural visage of death standing before him. "I stopped counting sometime really early, to be honest, but _you_ know, right?" Shikei just glared. The silence spoke to Shin enough that he prepared his guard by gripping strong the shaft of his scythe. His pressure crept from under his skin.

"That was win fifty" Shikei said in a low growl "out of fifty. You and I are at an equal match...." Death started taking the land. What scraps of life remained in the ground were gone, and the rough, hard dirt beneath Shin was quickly turned to dry, gray sand. The clouds overhead stopped moving. The sun in Shin's world was gone, replaced by a dismal black orb in the sky which shined past even the thickest gathering of stormy, cackling skulls. "Our training together has been little short of a joke if these are the only results worth yielding..." Shikei said.

"Think before you speak" Shin said as he pushed himself up straight. "You and I are the same person. In terms of training, I don't think there's anything I'd do to wilingly hold myself back from my fullest potential."

"**No, there is"** Shikei bluntly said. Shin tensed his brow and picked his scythe up, slowly moving it to rest on his shoulder. "Shin, you are a great fighter. You take pride not in the act of killing but in the pursuit of victory. You walk through hell barefoot and smile when your feet are charred black as coals. Just another training run to you, just another day in your life facing down death every passing hour. But consider that, no matter what abilities you hone from me, **you will always keep true power at a safe distance.**" Shin scoffed.

"Only a fool would do that" Shin said. "That's like claiming your mastery over water while being afraid to swim!" Shikei laughed. His laugh was hollow, voiceless, like the laughter of a dead, windy skull.

"Then you consider yourself a fool, Shin Kenpachi?" Shikei asked. "It is only natural. The fool sees the edge of a cliff and does not think he can fly to safety. He knows that if he jumps, death will claim him when he falls. Or maybe he can fly? That's what makes such an indecision foolish. Shin, you have no such problem. You see death and you back away. **But that is where you Fail!**" Shikei's voice exploded up suddenly and the sands shook with ripples. Shin braced his face as the harsh beating of sand blew past him and the swords marking graves in Shin's conscience were blown over, first Mann's to lead the rest...

"Your power" Shikei continued "is not one that can be so simply mastered. Your power is that over **death itself.** To control life is akin to the task of living, wind to flying, water to swimming, earth to treading it. Shin, what must a man do to make malleable in his hands death? Must he fear it, keep it away?"

"He must hold it close" Shin said as he finally caught on "and embrace the dangers of life without concern...." Shin lowered his gaze in doubt. Shikei stared down his skeletal teeth at Shin and turned away, his scythes exploding silently into a black mist that covered his body with the billowing, black fire of robes. He began walking to the mountain that was shadowed by the clouds, a formless place, a sudden slope in the world, and he ascended it. The sands behind Shin began to stir from under the swords. Through the parting, shifting sands came up the **arms of the fallen to claim their weapons of life.** The dark skin of a strong arm took up the handle of the rust-colored paddle and pulled its following body up from under the dead sea of sand.

"I must embrace death openly" Shin said "to understand it...and to take control of it. Death is an element within all men's destinies...only I can make it real." Shin's head drifted back up again. According to his mood, to his wishes and his views, the ground returned to its cracked, dead state and the sands were gone. Of the graveyard of swords only one had risen, though many had tried and their arms were left frozen as fragile quartz pillars. One being rose up from the sea of Shin's soul and stood now on solid ground, rolling his shoulders and testing his joints. Shin turned around to him. "Death is a scary, scary thing...isn't it, **Mann Aulder?"**

There he stood, rolling his arms and neck with his giant steel paddle _Habahioriken_lazily slanted over his shoulder and held by the end of the hilt in his hand. He looked just as Shin had always remembered him, deep in the back of his mind, as the first man worth killing he'd ever killed, the first reason for fighting he'd ever truly come across. Mann grinned and, with his free hand, equipped a pair of dark, angular glasses to his eyes.

"Haaah" Mann hissed through a grinning mouth. "Death is a great equalizer of men! I don't think anything of it!"

"Then you won't mind dying twice, I assume" Shin said with a spinning and setting of his scythe to stare Mann down. Mann became flustered.

"Are you picking a fight, you bastard!?" he shouted. He regained his composure and pushed his glasses up tighter to the top of his nose. With a cocksure grin he continued. "You're the one so scared of it. Wouldn't it be better if you got to be on the receiving end of it this time?" He swung his heavy weapon down in one hand and let it crash to the ground, breaking the fragile, dry dirt that it hit. Shin grinned and slid his scythe up, both hands together, and spun it. He began his roundabout charging, his _Saishuu Serifu_ style, and started to approach Mann calmly.

"If you're as good as you should be" Shin said "then I'm the only one remaining with a problem of death...Come and teach me, Mann, **everything I need to know about it!**" Mann smirked. The battle was on! He blasted forward and took a deep swing of his weapon. Shin guarded with the shaft held steady and straight, and let himself be pushed slowly over the ground by Mann's heavy swing. Then, when he stopped, with eyes wide and a grin flashing white, he stepped forward and parted Mann's chest with a slice down the middle. Mann unflinchingly backed away and brought his sword up, powering a stabbing thrust. Shin grinned and jumped up to run on the blade, then swept his scythe around Mann's neck and caught his iron skin, pulling him to the side and slicing a bleeding gash into his neck!

Shin landed back to the ground and ran in, leaning deep forward, scythe poised far at his side, wielded in both arms and with a mad scream of rage and a madder still face of blood-lust he swung a deep, dark slash through the air!!

* * *

Shin sat still silent, still being dragged on Jin's coat, though now more arduously by a determined Hoji who scoffed between nearly every breath. He huffed as he hoofed down the forest path with Suichi leading and Jin trailing behind, inspecting the scenery.

"I remember this rock!" Jin exclaimed. He poked at the mossy side of a rock with a crack in it. "It's one I stepped on! Woooooow!"

"JIN!" Hoji shouted. "You're falling behind again! Get up here!" Jin looked at Hoji's shrunken image still walking into the distance and ran to catch up. He stayed closer to Hoji, letting his arms sway freely in the cool, pre-rain winds, giving them rest for whatever came next. He smiled his wide mouth and walked upright down the road.

"Isn't it nice?" Jin asked.

"Tch?" Hoji scoffed.

"The world...being outside" Jin said. "I'd missed it for so long, I forgot what all was in it for a while. Now that I remember what the world and its forests are like, I wonder what else there is for me to see?"

"Mountains?" Suichi said. "Caves and cities? There's a sea, if I recall, a long ways away we could venture to."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "What idiot would go to the sea? There's nothing there! It's the end of the world!"

"Perhaps" Suichi said "but that in itself holds a certain spiritual significance to old and wizened men like me. Glancing over the edge of our reality, knowing that if one walked far enough he would **be no more on this spiritual sphere...** Ah, that sea. I wish I could see it for real."

"You've never even been to it!?" Hoji exclaimed. "Tch. Even I've been to it as a kid. And you thought you were the most traveled out of all of us. You're just a busy-body!"

"Can't argue with that" Suichi said coolly. Hoji groaned at the lost chance to fight and his loss in the battle of cool. He tugged Shin's tarp up over his shoulders as his arms were beginning to tire, and he started to tie the carpet around his waist.

"Is he done yet?" Hoji wondered. Suichi stopped the company. They stood silent for a moment in the forest path. Everything was silent. The world had stopped spinning for them. A drop of dew rolled from the leaf of a tree to the ground with a loud splash. Then the leaf fell as well, cut at its stem and carried by an unseen weight to the dirt below. The wind picked up in a sudden, loud gust and billowed Hoji's pigtail over his shoulder. The wind went in the other direction and hung for a moment, leaving everything floating as it was in the air, then let it drop neutrally.

"....we're here" Suichi said. "It's unmistakable. This is Netami's pressure..."

"Tch" Hoji speechlessly scoffed. "It's impressive, I'll give it that, but it's nowhere near as heavy as Shin's, even when he's not trying!"

"Netami _isn't_ trying" Suichi said. "This is just his natural, neutral aura." Hoji was swiftly shut up. "Wake Shin up, please. It'd be bad if Netami found us and decided to fight us with Shin sitting unconscious like that."

"Gotcha" Hoji said. He untied the tarp from his waist and ran onto it, kneeling down to Shin's vacant eyes staring into the narrow blunt side of his darkened sword. Hoji grabbed his nose and began moving his head around in a circle with a droning noise. "Wake up, dumbass! You'll miss your duel if you sleep in!" Hoji let go and Shin's head returned to its original position. So he slapped him, hard. "Wake up!"

"Don't hurt him!" Suichi exclaimed.

"I don't see you helping!" Hoji shouted. A dark hand gripped Hoji's arm. He turned and saw a skeletal grip fade away into darkness and back into the swirling blank stare in Shin's eye. Hoji stood up and hopped away, gripping his hand, watching his finger move, but feeling nothing. "Tch" he began, "I guess he's awake...enough. We should just wait for him to be done, for now."

"How much longer will that be?" Suichi wondered.

Within the spiritual world of Shin's sword, the fight continued with powerful clashes of steel against steel. Mann jumped up and stabbed his sword into the ground, scarring it with a blasted gash just as Shin leaped over him, delivering yet another addition to the myriad cuts on Mann's immortal body. Shin landed and spun his scythe while moving slowly away. Mann recovered his sword, swung it onto his shoulder, and ran after. He kicked up his leg and slammed it down, followed by his sword in a massive cleave. Shin dodged around it and had a foot kicked from the upheaved ground, leaving him to hop one-legged for a distance before he was in range to slice.

His scythe went quickly from a vertical spin to a horizontal slash and cut through Mann's exposed ribs. The manic warrior growled and picked his sword up. Shin gripped his scythe tight and prepared to defend from where he stood. With a roar Mann swung his heavy weapon in. Shin blocked and was moved to the side by the giant swing. As Mann's sword drifted away from Shin's block he brought it up over his head and slammed down. Shin blocked again with the shaft of his blade, his feet pushed hard against the rock ground. Mann wrenched his body, all of his muscles, to stop his sword from drifting any further than over his head and prepared for another attack. Shin spun his scythe around his body and parried the blow just in time, forcing Mann's sword to swing up over his head and sink behind him into the ground. His arm went with it and his body reacted to save from having a disjointed shoulder.

Shin spun away and held his scythe steady after, feeling the burn in his shaking legs from absorbing such a tremendous impact.

_It's nothing_ Shin thought. _That's the tension I have built up to spring, that's all. Nothing at all!_ Mann roared and charged in, dragging his sword behind him as he ran full forward. Shin spun his scythe to strike and timed his spin perfectly. He swept out with his right foot as a guide and his scythe made a nasty crescent gleam in the air, right through Mann's neck. The wound bled, or would have bled, but it wasn't fatal. He had deeply injured Mann, but he could live through it. Mann thusly ignored the pain and berserked with a shoulder-charge to Shin's chest. Shin was taken off his guard and let himself be blown away by it. Mann had thrown his whole body into swinging his sword from the ground and was in mid-flip when Shin caught his action. Shin dodged to the side and began running. He got three steps before he crouched down. His legs had given out.

Mann's sword had split the ground and gathered it up around it, like a sprung trap ensnaring its victim, only its victim willingly rose up from the dirt and was placed across the shoulder by the hilt of its wielder. Mann stomped toward Shin, all the weight of his mighty weapon pressing him down powerfully, his every footfall denting the earth.

_My legs want to spring now_ Shin thought, justifying their limp numbness _but I know better. If I spring now he'll deflect me. He'll guard me. He'll do something that will make my attack useless. I have to pick the perfect moment to strike._

"Look at this" Mann said with a laugh. "You're down on your knees already? It hasn't even been that much of a fight and now, sooner rather than later, your limits have stunned you and locked you to the dirt. Ha! What kind of a body is that, which can't withstand a little bit of Death's pain?" Mann took his sword handle in both hands and swung it forward, not in offense, but in practice, holding it out before him and breathing hard to keep it there. "You are weak, Shin Kenpachi. Only in death do you understand your flaws!" Mann drew his sword up high. Shin saw nothing guarded, only opportunities to attack on his black-scarred body, and so he sprung. He pushed from the shaft of his scythe and sprung through the air, blade first, cleaving Mann in half with a single powerful swing!

Shin landed behind, his legs finally dead, and grabbed the ground with shaking arms, propping himself up with the shaft of his scythe. He had won against death, and Mann was defeated....honorably. Mann still lived, an immortal vision only in Shin's mind, which Shin realized as he heard Mann's deep, loud breathing from behind. Mann turned around, his sword still held up over his head like an obelisk in the sky, and walked to Shin. Shin rolled himself over and prepared to defend from the dirt.

"Admirable" Mann said. "Even if your body dies, you live to fight! It seems you know something of death after all!" Mann tilted his sword back. Shin's eyes filled with fright, dread, and excitement. He gripped his scythe tight, still defensive in the face of absolute death, and took the graceful attack head on.

Shin awoke and stood up. His pressure killed the smaller plants in the area and cast a heavy black shadow across the forest path. The men around him turned their attention to him and away from the mountain side that Shin now looked at with his arms crossed. He grinned and shot a glare up the hill.

"Where is that pansy?" Shin asked. "I'm ready whenever he is!" Suichi was speechless. Jin applauded and Hoji made a low, growling laugh. Shin's face was full of arrogance and his eyes heavy with an enlightened shadow of knowledge.

_I understand, and now, in the real world, I must test my knowledge against true Death. Come at me, Netami, however you want. You'll never kill me...

* * *

"....they're here" Netami lowed. He brushed his dark hair from his eyes and parted the silken black curtains to see down the slope. There they stood, in the clearing, plain as day. Shin glared up the hillside, tracking the pressure as he went. The rain started falling again, soft and ominous of the storm to come. Thunder rolled from the far distance, from over the mountains that scaled the horizon._

"They?" Horoshi said. "There's more than one? Are you going to fight them all!?" Netami took a reflective silence to Horoshi's questions.

"No" he said. "The other three won't have anything to do with my fight, I'm certain. This man is obviously the kind of lonely fool who travels with company, but doesn't have them fight for him. We can take our duel elsewhere and leave those others to worry about him."

"Or" Kakugari said "we can test our mettle to pass the time! A good challenge here and there keeps the blades sharp, does it not?"

"What time?" Netami said. He ran for the edge of the hill and jumped off the cliff with a flash-step powered kick. He flew through the air, destined for the ground where Shin walked. "This will take no time at all!" Netami drew his sword back, hand over hand, to his right side. He aimed to slash through the air and preemptively begin the duel.

"Here he comes" Shin said.

"Already!?" Suichi shouted. Shin gripped the inner edges of his robe and pulled them out. With his shirt open and flowing behind him he made a flash-step jump, kicking with a blast off the ground, and flew straight for Netami in the air. The two grim warriors grinned at one another. Shin's blade versus Netami's destined to clash, a fate unknown to powers that refused answer.

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed. "Looks like the bastard wasn't alone!" Hoji pointed to the slope from which Netami had leaped. Three more figures made their way down in long, jogging jumps, following in Netami's trajectory to intercept Shin's entourage and keep them from the main fight.

"Pick a target" Horoshi ordered "and stick with it! Under no circumstances can we allow Netami's fight to be interrupted!"

"Stall them gracefully!" Senshi shouted. "Force them to marvel at your powers!"

"I shall show these indignant men" Kakugari exclaimed "the force of the wild powers I have gathered! To arms, dear friends, **to ARMS!!!**" They flew as well. Hoji unsheathed his sword and gripped it before him, pinky fingers together, wrist over wrist.

"Rip and Tear" he lowed, "_Torakaze!!!_" At his incantation the winds whipped and roared from his fists and his gauntlets were formed, golden and powerful. Suichi held his sword at his side, as if he were about to draw it out of a sheathe, with his left hand forward.

"Coil endlessly, _Haganerensa!_" The chain of his soul was wrapped tight to his left forearm and the jagged metal ended spike extended out from his middle finger. He glared up and locked eyes with the youngest one, the brown-haired Horoshi. Jin was still lost in staring at the leaves of trees and didn't notice the flight of men inbound. His arm, unconscious of his thinking, acting mind, placed itself on his chest and pushed lightly into his body, his sword taking command to draw itself out, and his bangs started to fall over his face.

The battle began with a sharp and wicked crash of thunder as a bolt of lightning split through the clouds. It wasn't true thunder, though, as that crack of energy followed after. What started this fated clash was the wicked snap of blade meeting blade, powers colliding with tumultuous force. Death and glory abandoned themselves as two men were pressed together, their swords scraping blade to blade, with evil growling grins facing off together. Shin and Netami met swords, drifted to the ground, landed their bodies with a crash and then ran together, attacking constantly, both guarding and attacking at the same time. They ran for the rolling plains to escape the aid and interruption of their comrades.

"TCH!!!" Hoji shouted as he jumped. "You guys don't know who you **MESSING WITH!!!**" He flew towards Kakugari who had just drawn hi sword. They both drifted down to the tops of the trees together and landed on them with the soft control of their finely trained feet. Hoji punched and Kakugari blocked with his broad blade drawn. Hoji stepped forward with each punch and drew Kakugari deeper and deeper into the edge of the forest, drawing him into the dark wilds where only his winds could reach....

"You're mine!" Horoshi called as he drew his sword. Suichi assumed his destined match and jumped away just as Horoshi landed with a swing. Suichi landed in a tree branch and whipped his chain at Horoshi's feet, forcing him to dance in dodging. Senshi landed softly and charged Jin with not a blade but his powerful arms flexing to wind up a punch. With his fingers extended he stabbed forward into Jin's gut, parted through his flesh as if it were mud, and had all the fingertips he used bend backwards and _kept_ backwards as they hit Jin's slowly drawing flat blade. He pulled the weapon from his body and leaned over the arrogant man with a mad, gleaming grin and wide, white eyes.

"What was that?" Jin asked. Senshi jumped away and cracked his fingers straight. He grinned under his broad, blond mustache and reached for his sword. His hand strayed in a violent surge of pressure and skipped across the top of his blade's pommel. "You dizzy?" Jin asked, straightening his massive form. "Confused? Well you should be. **I'm always pretty confused!!!**" Jin swung down and broke the ground. Senshi retreated into the forest. Jin roared and pursued him. Suichi and Horoshi watched, within the range of Jin's pressure, paralyzed by an arcane influence of indecision and imbalance swaying their bodies.

"Let's stay here" Suichi said as he hopped from the tree. "There aren't many places in the woods worth finding to fight in." Horoshi stepped away and held his sword tight, torqued at his side, swinging loosely as his feet rose and set to the ground. His whole body moved in his pose. Suichi couldn't find any use or purpose to his shifting tension other than preparation to attack. His assassin's mind was working along with his newly honed fighting mind. He rose up his left arm and bent his legs, sliding his dominant left forward. "You're pretty eager, aren't you?"

"I'll defeat you" Horoshi said "as just the first step towards my climb to power. Just watch!" Suichi could see the determination in his eyes. Youthful, arrogant, rough and untrained. He was an amateur but something in the gleam of his sword's metal on the pale light of the storm-covered sky told him that there was an admirable warrior somewhere within that young man's mind. Suichi would fight that warrior and negate all thought on the young man before him. He would fight his potential, as a warrior would...

And thus the battle began. Where it will end, how it will end, who will survive? In the end, the question cannot be answered.

Death takes all. Death will dominate this field of battle as it does all battles and all wars. The difference now in death is how a single man manages to control it, and only if that man can take up its reigns without fear or thought of remiss.


	88. Four Fighting 1

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Into the woods these fighters ran, avoiding the open air and the deathly clouds that loomed so high overhead, black and cackling skulls that flew slowly through the sky. Jin and Senshi fought less and less the deeper into the dark woods they ran. Senshi eventually lost sight of the menacing man and found himself surrounded by darkness as the clouds drained the last light from the sky and the rain began.

_Egads!_ Senshi thought. _He's taken me straight into a trap!_ The brush behind him rustled with the flight of some large creature. Senshi did not start or turn, but his eyes did drift into their narrowed corners and his hand sought the hilt of his blade. _I shall not let this miscreant warrior best me in a match of might of will! I am a fearless soldier, bound to sacred oath and pact, sworn to-_

Jin grabbed Senshi's ankle from the cover of the brush and yanked him into the darkness. Senshi let out a squeal not unlike a woman shrieking for a moment. Jin rose up to his full height and threw Senshi with all the whipping force and torque in his arm and thick, powerful chest into a tree which dented against his pressure of impact. Jin growled as Senshi fell down to the ground and roared in the dark. Senshi pushed himself up to his feet and turned around. Jin was already upon him with his blade held high up. Senshi flash-stepped away and let Jin cleave the injured tree in half down the middle.

"GAAAHH!!!" Jin roared. He whipped his head around and searched for Senshi, stomping into the darkness and sinking down to crawl around with long pulls of his arms and pushes of his legs, like a demonic serpent searching blindly for a rodent to devour. "Where....are you?" he hissed. Senshi had taken to the boughs of a tree and watched Jin move across the dim, shadowy ground from a safe distance.

_He's absolutely mad_ Senshi thought. _His spiritual pressure proves that. There isn't a thing right about that boy which I'd claim to know. However, his madness seems to be an attribute of his strength, or perhaps the other way around. And his body, it is permeable in the strangest way! As long as it is within his mind, nothing can harm him. Therefore, I must attack outside his mind! I must initiate the release of my sword post-haste!_ Senshi stood up on the branch and jumped away, giving the tree only the quietest creaking and rustle as he fled. Within a moment Jin had rammed the tree and was shaking it madly. When he realized his prey wasn't there he rushed off into the brush to continue his search, listening intently to his surroundings.

_Where is he?_ Jin wondered. _Is he still here? Did he vanish into the rain?_ Jin wandered into a clearing and saw Senshi standing with his sword out, clutched in one hand with the palm of his other hand pressed against the blunt edge of the blade. Jin brought himself into view and stilled himself. He waited for his prey to notice him, for any trace of a visual cue, and then he would pounce before the rush of flight completely overcame his haughty animal foe. Jin took another crawling length forward, pulling himself with his arm and grabbing the wet grass in a tight not. Senshi looked upon him and smiled.

"Checkmate, lad!" Senshi said. Jin pulled his legs up underneath his belly and pounced into the air. Senshi sidestepped him and let him crash into a tree behind him. Jin splintered and split the tree with his weight, then casually stepped off of it and walked the rest of the way to Senshi who stood with both hands ready on the hilt of his sword. Jin smiled madly and wound his sword up across his chest. Then he swung. A powerful, mighty blow that shook the rain from the grass and carved a clean, brown slice of earth from the ground around the steadfast Senshi. His eyes widened at the shaking pain in his arms from blocking such a mighty blow, and almost immediately his arms went numb. Jin, with his arm still swung wide to the side, stepped in and kicked Senshi square in his chest, throwing him back against a tree.

"Uff!" Senshi groaned. He settled onto the ground and was stomped in place by Jin's powerful foot. Jin ground him down, stomping his foot down onto his waist and laughing lightly.

"Checkmate?" Jin said. "What's that? Sounds stupid. You're stupid! Hehehe!" Jin pressed down harder and harder until he heard something in Senshi snap. Then the blond man gave a mute gasp of pain and collapsed against the ground. Jin continued laughing evilly, his bangs limp before his face and his eyes angled with a deep furrow of his brow, as he crushed Senshi's body beneath his heel.

Then the man vanished in a puff of smoke and Jin's foot smashed into the ground. Jin was confused.

"Looking for me?" Senshi asked, his voice coming from behind. Jin turned around and saw the man, the very same man with his sword still held and his body still in a perfect, muscular, manly condition staring him down with one eyebrow raised. "Bet you didn't see this coming at all, did you?" Senshi spun his sword around his body, stepped back and posed with an open palm flared out by the tip of his blade. His arm was fully extended along the blade of his sword and the arm that wielded it was tensed back with the power charged to stab.

"**Gemini Thrust!"** Senshi stepped forward and stabbed his sword forward. Jin's flesh rippled away from a small, powerful puncture point and burst open like the soft, muddy clay it imitated. His inner body was exposed and dripping down with wet, thick patches of flesh-colored mud-like skin flowing from him. He coughed and winced as he fell to his knees. Senshi brought his sword in both hands up by his shoulder and held it steady, waiting for his animal foe to recover, as he knew he would. Jin grabbed at the running muddy remains of his blown-away flesh and reeled his head up with a roar.

"**UUURAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!"** Jin's emotions ran red with fury and rage...

* * *

Suichi's metal chain whip crashed and slashed across the blade of brave and errant Horoshi rapidly, throwing his weight with each tug that his sword gave. He hopped to and fro, guided by the frantic energy of combat. His young body was still so unadjusted to the reality of combat that he let Suichi guide the fight, and he guided it in the ideal way for an assassin to fight. He was luring his defenses away while maintaining his low presence, biding his time for the ideal moment when he would strike.

Horoshi was furious, driven to fight and swing and defend with a powerful rage. Despite his better instincts against throwing his weight into each swing he did, powering through the whips of Suichi's chain with the sheer force of his driven rage.

_He's a bit uncontrolled_ Suichi thought. With his left hand assailing and his right hand free he breathed out a concentrated, frozen breath and began to gather his energies. _I can finish this now..._

"_**Koori Kumo!"**_ At Suichi's call the forest path was covered with haze. His chain slithered into the shadows of the trees as he retreated, leaving Horoshi alone to defend against the encroaching cold that surrounded him. His rage kept him warm as he searched for the movement of a shadow in the cold, icy mist as it billowed and blew in the rainy winds.

"Where are you?" Horoshi growled. "I'll find you! You aren't the only one with Kido!" Horoshi stabbed his blade into the ground and clapped his hands together. Lights emanated from his fingertips and he threw those lights into the air above him. The lights flickered and sparkled brightly in the thick, shivering fog. He clapped his hands together again and formed a bright ball of light as his palms parted. He took that ball of light in his hand and threw it higher than the other lights above him where it stayed suspended above. Then, with his hands clasped together and fingers netted across each other, he incanted.

"_Reunite the lost and the wandering, the distant and the strange, with this Earth, the next, and one yet undiscovered. Bring forth a revelation to the skies and to the flowers on the ground as both dance with the lights of heaven's blessing. Seven heavens, seven hells! Year after year! **Hikoboshi Keiro!!!"**_ The lights that hung above him exploded into bright, white, celestial orbs that spread out over the forest and illuminated all the scenery in a glistening silver hue. Horoshi picked up his sword and looked up to the blinding light. He was entranced by the light as it shined and brightened the area.

_Some kind of revealing spell?_ Suichi wondered. _Whatever. My fog is dying. I have to act fast..._ Suichi appeared from the treeline opposite where he entered, across the road, with his sword in its regular form, held in a reverse grip. He came in low, close to the ground, and crawled up behind Horoshi. He stepped up to his full height and rose up his blade, aimed for the boy's back. Horoshi glared and spun around with an attack. Suichi blocked and slid away at its power. He reset himself for battle and dodged Horoshi's incoming stab. Suichi landed nearby and attacked again, releasing his sword silently into a chain around his right arm for defense.

"Don't try to screw with me" Horoshi demanded, his voice booming through the bright air, amplified by the light of the stars. "I may be a kid, but as you can see, I'm a lot stronger than I look!"

"I never said otherwise, did I?" Suichi said, his voice just as loud in the clear, silver air as Horoshi's. Horoshi turned and aimed his sword at the assassin with a snarl.

"The Tenshioni" he began "does not accept weaklings. The warriors at our summit are selected through painstaking searching and consideration by an unseen power. Our body is governed only by the strongest of our members, and under his shadow only the most privileged men may follow! I am one such man! Netami is our strongest leader, our strongest warrior, the strongest shinigami in the land of the Seireitei!! **I won't disgrace him so swiftly by losing to an honorless man like you!!!**"

"Honor is always an abstract concept with me" Suichi said "but not because I don't understand it. It's because I'm an assassin, so you think I simply don't have it. Isn't honor something one can learn just as well as combat?" Suichi grabbed the chain as it extended off of his finger and wrapped it around his hand. He held the chain at the length of his arm and straightened with the command "Hold!" The chain in his hand was solid and firm. Horoshi charged in and attacked Suichi's chain, expecting it to bend under the weight of his powerful swing, but it didn't move. Not even the link which Horoshi's blade pressed against shifted from its position. Suichi grinned and pushed Horoshi away.

"RAGH!" Horoshi roared. He stepped in and swung rapidly, powerfully, in broad strokes left and right, over his head and down while Suichi blocked with his singe arm with the solid chain saber in his hand.

"_Haganerensa_ has only the form of a chain" Suichi explained. "How that form is used is up to me and my mind. The possibilities for attacking with this weapon are as limitless as they are deadly. It suits me as an assassin and as a warrior perfectly, wouldn't you say?"

"Shut up!" Horoshi growled. He took both hands to his sword and managed to pull Suichi's arm to the side. He ground his foot against the dirt with a twist and kicked Suichi in his lower abdomen, forcing him back. Suichi regained his bearings just as Horoshi came in with a deep swing coming over his shoulder. Suichi blocked it, extended his middle finger in his free hand and jabbed it with a punch up into Horoshi's gut. His skin buckled and his stomach was pushed from outside. He shouted and charged ahead again, this time with a short headbutt into Suichi's chest. Suichi was stunned by the absurdity of the attack so much that he didn't notice how low Horoshi was holding his sword, parallel to the ground and ready to coast up into a stab.

_Oh damn_ Suichi cursed. "Damn!" Horoshi stabbed through him, withdrew his blade and kicked Suichi's body back. He staggered across the dirt and backed into a tree standing in the bright, ethereal pathway clearing. Horoshi brushed the hair from his face and sneered at Suichi.

"Come one, you back-stabber" he taunted, provoking Suichi to descend his face in anger. "**Let's see what honor you've learned....**" Suichi pushed himself away from the tree and gripped his chain sword tight. He wiped the blood from his mouth and straightened himself out to fight again, ignoring the pain of the wound in his gut...

* * *

"Interesting!" Kakugari exclaimed as Hoji's claws swept and slashed and ripped across his blocking blade. "Very interesting! You fight with the ferocity of an animal!"

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed. He kicked the blade away, slid into range in a spiraling motion across the wet grass and backhanded Kakugari in his floating rib. "But I have the intelligence of a **goddamn MAN!**" Hoji stabbed his fingers skin-deep into Kakugari's stomach and was kicked away. He looked up at the dark-skinned man, a full head taller than he, with a hissing, scathing growl. "Tch! What's the fun of fighting without experimentation?"

"I agree!" Kakugari proclaimed. He made a sweeping strike with his sword, running it across the ground and slicing it straight up from the mud and grass. The rain flew up from the ground in an arc of droplets and flew at Hoji. He vanished and the wave of energy fractured the bark of the trees behind him as Kakugari's powerful attack flew through the air. Kakugari set his sights up through the trees and jumped, right into Hoji's attack. He was punched square in his nose and thrown through the air along the canopy of leaves. He focused his energy in his feet and caught the leaves as a continuous, solid surface, standing on top of them without wavering in the wind that shook them.

The rain was falling freely. Hoji ran through the air with his claws pulling him along, like a tiger sprinting after its prey, and stopped in front of Kakugari's drawn blade. He threw an open palm with bladed finger claws at the blade and grabbed it. Then he pulled himself around to the other side of the sword and kicked Kakugari in his stone-hard neck. Kakugari took his free hand and grabbed Hoji's leg to slam him down through the trees they fought on.

"Like hell!" Hoji shouted. He let go and wound his gauntlets around each other, summoning a sudden gust of wind that knocked Kakugari off his balance and opened a hole in his footing. His leg was thrust down through the hole in the leaves and his balance was lost, but his arrogant grin remained and his guard was steady. Hoji punched into his sword blocks as he fell, drifting down to the ground and leaving the current battle for the more static and steady dirt below while Hoji assaulted his retreat.

"In physical combat" Hoji said "I'm without rival.....except Shin, and only if we're both completely disarmed and his spirit-pressure is part of the battle...but otherwise, you're ass is mine!" Hoji dove down through the leaves and smashed into the ground with an upthrust of dirt and debris around him as his fist made a crater at his feet. Kakugari waited for him to be up again and attacked. His long sword swung in powerful, sweeping strikes but remained controlled and precise. His blade didn't swing too far from its mark in the forest and it didn't dare to harm the trees everywhere. His only target was Hoji and his attacks relentlessly followed the manic fighter as he blocked and leaped around the swings. Hoji planted his feet and wound his arm down past his hips and whipped it upright to his side to block Kakugari's sword with a loud blast of metal-on-metal and a gust of wind. He scowled and grabbed the sword, jerking it and stabbing it into the ground. He took a running step forward, hopped onto the sword as Kakugari abandoned it and took up his arms, and Hoji delivered a flying kick to his blocking, thick arms.

"What vigor!" Kakugari proclaimed. "And what grace! You fight like a dancer, or are you dancing like a fighter? The winds are your subject audience to the swaying emotions of your brilliant form!"

"Shut up!" Hoji demanded. He jabbed with his fingers pressed together in a flat, bladed palm and a blade of air hit Kakugari's exposed side. Hoji drew both arms back and planted his feet firmly to the dirt. He rapidly, blurringly jabbed and stabbed his clawed hands into the air, pushing spear after spear of wind into Kakugari in an unending assault, roaring the whole time. "HHH**RARARARARARARARARA!!!!**"

_I was complimenting him_ Kakugari noted as he blocked the blades of air with the rippling, dark flesh of his powerful arms. _Does he not follow my poetic language? Perhaps I should tone down my combative vernacular..._

"TCH!" Hoji exclaimed. His final punch blew Kakugari against a tree, stunning him and his grin for just the moment Hoji needed. He picked Kakugari's sword up from the ground and threw it pommel-first at the man's body. Kakugari caught it and wound it back in the same motion, preparing to attack the moment Hoji would charge in. Hoji did not charge in, however. He stayed standing, his fists tensed and his muscles tightly flexed all over, with a heinous glare on his face.

"Is that all you have in you?" Kakugari asked as he pushed himself forward from the tree. "A lot of sound and fury to signify some defiant struggle against a greater power? You really are an animal, aren't you? Bearing your fangs when trouble corners you and your claws and teeth cannot help you escape it. Maybe not a tiger, but perhaps some feeble prey animal!"

"Shut up" Hoji lowed. He closed his eyes, clasped his palms together and twisted his wrists around to net his fingers together as his arms were spiraled around each other. Hoji took a measured breath and blew it into his knotted fists. The winds began spinning around his fists between the spaced where his arms parted and the open air. Kakugari gazed at Hoji's ritual and saw the winds whipping as the rain formed a spinning wheel around his fists. Hoji kept blowing his breaths into the wheel, spinning it faster and faster, gathering the power of the winds around his fists.

Then the forest became quiet. The rain fell silently and the winds vanished. All of them had gathered into Hoji's air-tight grip between the coiled palms of his hands. Hoji opened his eyes with a glare of gold. Fierce and flashing animal eyes shot through the dark and stunned Kakugari in his place.

"_**Shinkuuken ARASHI!!!!!"**_ Hoji opened his palms with his arms straight up and straight down. A silent boom ripped through the darkness and a flurry of invisible, airless blades roared from the opening Hoji's hands made. Kakugari brought up his blade to block in no given direction and against no single attack, but in the abstract hope that it would intercept more of the attacks than it would guide into him. The winds curled around his sharp sword and blasted into him, carving bloody cuts all over his body, from his head down to his feet, as the vacuum-blade explosion tore apart the trees and ripped apart the ground all in Hoji's wake.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What kind of man gets blown over by the wind?" Kakugari was silent. He stood with his sword still out, the shining blade the only part of him that wasn't wet with blood and rain and mud. He gathered his energies to move again, though his grin had faded with the pain that was brought....

* * *

Finally, they stopped at the crest of a hill, and parted their blades. Shin stepped back with a swing of his sword down to cast off the rain that had gathered on it. Netami swung his sword out and blew a breeze down the hill with its force. The warriors stared each other down with a building, silent fury boiling just under their skin. Netami was eager to fight, but Shin showed his apathy. He slung his sword over his shoulder and loosened his stance with a yawn.

"Let's introduce ourselves" Shin said "before one of us dies, alright?" Netami did not falter. His face was covered on one side by his long, curtain of black hair and shaded on the other by dark, evil shadows. "I'm Shin Kenpachi, warrior and general badass man. I hail from Seireitei originally, the Zaraki district if my memory serves me well, and my only current quest is to fight you." Shin waited in the rain and darkness, eventually shifting his feet and offering the floor to Netami with a wave of his hand. "Now it's your turn."

"I have nothing to say" Netami said, ignoring the irony that made Shin smirk. He took his sword in his left hand and gripped it low on the hilt with his right. Shin realized then that he was left handed and matched his mental preparations for strategy accordingly. Shin lowered his sword and stepped forward, profiling his body to Netami's with his sword lazily aimed forward. Netami drew himself back in a liquid body movement and his sword up high, the blade level and flat so that the rain was sliced as it dripped onto it. He held it poised at his shoulder level and glared at Shin with his burning, orange eyes. Shin rolled his shoulders and whipped his head back to adjust his wet bangs. He was ready, as hard as it was to believe.

A crash of thunder and lightning lit the plains around them. The grass glistened with the rain for a moment and the distant forest seemed illuminated with a strange and foreign light. Shin waited for the first move to be made. Then, seeing no movement, he made it with a dash and a quick chop for Netami's exposed side. Netami blocked the blade high by by turning his sword in his hands. Shin continued the attack and powered through Netami's block by sliding his sword off from his and kicked him with a knee. Netami slid away from the knee, spun around and swung his sword just away from Shin's body, just out of reach. Shin furrowed his brow and leaped away as the ground he stood on was cut apart. He had avoided the attack. Netami took his sword in his left hand, curled his left arm and swung it down straight so the blade barely met the grassy ground. All the grass around him fell.

_What is he just that powerful_ Shin thought _or is it his sword?_ Shin looked up at Netami's glaring eyes. He found no emotion in them but unrequitted hatred. _He's not going to tell me, obviously, so I'll just avoid it as best I can._ Netami turned the blade at Shin and swung up, a very improper and taunting swing. Shin read into the move and saw the rain in front of him sliced into droplets as it fell. He dodged to the side and felt the air move with violent speed. Netami flash-stepped ahead and intercepted Shin. They traveled down the hill, exchanging short blows, Shin with his one lazy arm swinging powerful, mocking blows into Netami's quick two-handed guard. They reached a flat length of ground at the base of the hill and Netami stopped them with a step forward and an overhead pressing swing of his blade. Shin held his defense and dodged to the side, blocking another attack by Netami's sword aimed low and a spinning attack that went from shoulder to hip.

"Nice follow-through" Shin said as the ground was split open and dirt flew out from under the grass. Shin stepped in and began to fight seriously. He stabbed and gripped his sword with his left hand. Another stab and Netami dodged. Shin's sword was close enough to make a shallow cut so he pushed with his back and shoulders to carry the tip of the sword down. Netami read the move and blocked with his blade pointed down, still held in both hands curled to the right side of his body. From that pose Netami crouched down, brought his blade to his right side, and held it like he was about to draw it out. Shin read his move. It was undodgable, but not unblockable, and he brought the strength of both his hands to his sword to block the attack.

"HYAH!" Netami roared. He lunged forward and swung his blade in a flashing crescent slice which lingered in the air as a glimmer of light around his body. Netami lowered his sword and stood up again. He turned his head to the left, the direction his attack carried trough, and saw Shin still traveling across the ground. He had blocked the attack and was thrown by the sword up the hill along the ground. His feet kicked up all the cut grass and dirt and mud that Netami's blade had made. Netami grinned and chased after him with his blade held in its formal style near his right shoulder.

_My arms are numb_ Shin realized. _That attack was too brutal. I shouldn't have tried to block it so bluntly!_

_Then you could die _spoke Shikei form within _and not worry about the difficulties of fighting anymore..._ Shin snarled. He stopped himself with a stomp and swung his blade off to the side. The feeling in his arms returned once more, just in time to engage Netami's charge and retaliate with a kick. Netami blocked his foot with his knee and pushed his blade to the ground, pinning it with his in his right hand. Shin followed his left hand, which was open before him, and saw a dark gathering of energy around it.

"**Makai Myaku"** At his low incant, a silent, invisible blast echoed from his hand and shook Shin from within. His organs were hit with a spiritual wave and stunned him off his guard. Netami took his blade up casually and kicked his foot into Shin. It sank into his stomach and he **picked him up with a straight leg.** Shin curled up over his leg and coughed on the ground to the side of his pantleg.

"Scuse me" Shin groaned. Netami whipped his leg around and threw Shin back down to the flat plain where he rolled and dropped his sword to better get a hold of the ground and groan in pain. "Feels like I took a punch to the lungs...and heart!" Shin coughed again and looked up. Netami was slowly returning to the field, a grim smile across his face. Shin took up his sword and held it tight and forward, ready to fight.

_You're holding it wrong_ Shikei said. Shin looked down at his hands, right over left, both close together but with enough space to manipulate leverage, primary hand guarded by the round guard shaped like a flattened skull.

_No I'm not_ Shin argued.

_Summon your strength, Shin_ Shikei commanded. _There is no reason to fight without it now..._ Shin was silent. Netami's foot hit the flat plain and he stopped, taking sudden notice to Shin's new pose. His sword was held with the hilt in his left and and by the blade in his right.

"Reaping time" Shin called, "_Shikei!_" His sword transformed in a morphing spiral of black, hollow energy into a mighty, silver-bladed scythe. Shin spun it over his head in a powerful circle and swung it down into position, blade pointed forward, shaft diagonal from the ground running past his left hip and over his lowest right rib. One hand low and to the left, the other high and held off to the right. Shin's hair changed as well. It was no longer weighted by the rain but freely standing and moving in a silken trail after his head whichever way it went. "It's just getting good, you know" Shin said. Netami grinned and presented his right palm that swirled with the same hellish gathering of dark energy as his left did before.

"Of course..." he said with a smug, dark grin. "Men like us refuse to die easily. **That's why we're hated."**

"Don't speak for me, man" Shin said. "I'm a celebrity to most bandits." Netami charged in. Shin charged as well. Their weapons met with a crash, muted by the blast of thunder and lighting which streaked the black sky!

* * *

Koori Kumo: Ice Cloud  
Hikoboshi Keiro: (Hikoboshi is the Japanese name for the star Altair in the Summer Triangle Constelation and is celebrated during Tanabata to honor a myth of the Milky Way. Keiro means path.)

Shinkuuken Arashi: Vacuum Blade Storm  
Makai Myaku: Hell Pulse (Makai, Jigoku, Naraku are all names for Hell)


	89. Four Fighting 2

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Jin recovered as much as he could in his anger and faced down his foe. In his madness, he saw two of Senshi, and one retreated into the shadows of his blurred sight as the other made the dash forward to fight. Jin brought up his thick blade and blocked Senshi's powerful stab, treating it like nothing. He roared at Senshi and wound back his arm to hack at him. Senshi dodged as Jin swept his sword through the air, throwing a powerful gust that moved the rain from the grass below it. Jin was stuck on his knee from the pain. His body was still recovering from the mighty blow Senshi inflicted.

Jin looked up and Senshi vanished. His vision danced with the warped visions of air that bent and ruptured uncommonly, only through his eyes, from the madness of his pressure. Jin's body froze the skin around its wound, still a wide and deep wound in his side, for protection. His whole chest hardened as well and creaked as Jin stood up on both feet. His skin was hardening from its state of mud into a hardened clay, an earthly rock density to protect him even further.

"Come out" Jin growled. "I'll beat you to pieces!" Senshi heard his threat from the shadows at the border of the forest line. He stealthily retreated, leaving the wild man alone in the clearing to sniff at the wet air and search. Jin's head whipped around, his bangs flying wildly, and he locked onto the void of shadows in the forest. He moved into it and stalked in wide steps after the silently retreating Senshi.

_This boy's mind rests in his blade, no doubt_ Senshi thought. _He has little head about him that isn't focused so intently at chopping me down. He's more of a wood-cutter than a swordsman, but he has power. I know that he has power and nothing but. His body and his soul, they are one. I can do no more harm to him with my sword alone than I could to a pool of wet clay. He cannot be touched by the likes of me....it seems I've drawn the unluckiest lot in my opponent. A man like me, who rests all his faith in his sword, **cannot fight a monster with no blood**. _Senshi took to the trees and used his pressure to rest safely over them, sitting on the leaves of the trees and overlooked the rest of the scenery. He was not so far away from where he started as he could see the distant starry light cast by Horoshi at his battle.

_I must wait his madness out_ Senshi planned _and attack when his mind is lucid enough to know pain again..._ Jin stalked underneath the trees and reached the end of his trail. There were leaves on the forest floor spread in such a manner that suggested to Jin where his enemy had gone. Even in his less-than-lucid mind state, he knew where Senshi was and aimed his head up with a quick jerk of his neck. His body slowly straightened and hardened as he stood static. Jin gripped and regripped the metal handle of his butchery blade in his hand and contemplated with his shallow thoughts his attack. Then, with a whip, he threw his sword up through the leafy canopy. It blasted right past Senshi, followed by a trail of leaves ascending after the heavy blade. Senshi was stunned with fear.

"RUGH!" Jin shouted, an animistic bark. He jumped up and reached up through the leaves, gripping Senshi by the back of his sash. With something firmly clutched in hand, Jin waited to fall and threw Senshi down to the ground just as his feet planted to the grass. "HAA!" Jin shouted with a more conscious effort of excited emotion. "I've got you now! You can't run from me any-" This Senshi disappeared just as before, and in his confused madness Jin was forced to stand back up with a total vacancy of through on his face. His blade came spinning back down through the tree canopy and smashed into the ground, breaking the solid dirt into a split crater. Jin sat down in front of his sword, his bangs limp from the rain over his face, and swept them back.

"Maybe this man" Jin thought "has some special power that I don't fully understand...." As Jin thought, much out of his character, Senshi watched him from nearby, a stern glare on his face and his blade drawn in the shadows. Jin scratched his head, but found the practice neither alleviating to his confusion nor aiding him in his thoughts. He began rubbing his head with both hands, ruffling his soft red hair at the sides of his head in a vain attempt to stir up thoughts in his mind. Still, his head was too cloudy to think properly of anything. "Maybe it's just an illusion...." Jin thought, resting his tired head on his fist and his elbow on his knee. "Maybe....."

Jin's thoughts were interrupted. His astute senses picked up the approach of Senshi from behind who had abandoned all his stealth in favor of a full-forward rush. "Die, you knavish fool!" Senshi shouted. He jumped through the air and powered a stab Jin's way. Jin was caught in the act of turning to stand when he was pierced between the ribs through his thickened skin. Senshi landed and pressed in, spinning his flat, double-edged blade and finally drawing real blood. Jin didn't instantly react to the pain. He just stared down at the blade caught in his body and the attempts of Senshi to pull it out.

"Damnation!" Senshi exclaimed. "My sword is stuck!" He tried pulling with both hands, but neglected to stay mindful of the foe his sword was stuck in. Jin's eyes went wide and white with a mindless rage. His arm was wound up over his shoulder with no blade in it. Jin's leg slid forward and his body curled over his shallow wound. His elbow flew down into the flat of Senshi's sword, snapping it from his body. Senshi was stunned and speechless. Jin then plucked the blade of the sword from his wound and held it like a needle between his fingers. He wound his arm back again and swung with a growl, to the side, aiming at Senshi's neck. Senshi blocked with what he had left of a blade with both arms. Jin rose up a leg and shouted as he stomped a foot into Senshi's face. Senshi was thrown back and flipped head over heels once before smashing into a tree. Jin approached with his hand palming his thin cut.

"**It doesn't hurt"** Jin growled. He pushed his hand through his skin and gripped his second blade. He pulled it out and drew it over his head. Senshi looked up with both fear and heated anger, unable to move away as Jin sliced both he and the tree against him in two with the force of his arm. Jin stepped back from his victory and lowed. He looked around and walked to his second blade, still defensive and cautious. The Senshi that had been cleaved along with the tree was gone and the tree split in two directions from its perfect cut. Jin reached down for his second blade still resting in the broken ground and looked up with a glare at Senshi, still alive.

"Such wild power" Senshi began. "I can only imagine by how much that power shall increase with two blades wielded."

"Shut up, damn you" Jin said as he took his other blade in hand. He stood at full height and gripped his blades in his hands, holding them between his index fingers and thumbs while the other hands were extended out in a flair to accompany his apathetic expression. "Man, I should start swinging for your face so you'll stop talking at me so much! You're obnoxious as hell! Hasn't anyone ever told you that?" Senshi huffed.

"You are a cruel child, aren't you?" Senshi said. "But it hardly matters to me what mad thoughts of me you have ready to race in your head...."

"You see" Senshi began, "it is not within my power to harness the powers of any other realm. My aura has no substance. It is pure strength and power, a Combat aura. Hence my ability..." Before Jin there stood an anomaly that his fight-drunk head could not make sense of. **Two Senshi's **standing beside each other, the second one having walked out from behind the first as if he had always been there. These two were perfectly identical. The sheathed swords hung from the same side of their hips and the curls of their blond mustaches were turned up in the exact same way.

"This ability of mine" Senshi proclaimed "is the power of my sword! The will of mine to surpass my ultimate opponent: Myself!" Both Senshi's posed in a mirror of each other with their backs together and their arms framing their heads with tight, muscular flexes.

"_**GEMENI!!!"**_ they roared. Jin looked down at them, his head tilted back slightly, and he grinned.

_That just means more than one to kill!!!_ Jin thought with a mad amount of glee in his voice. He grinned and stomped his feet to the ground, letting out a breath of air as a shaky, dark laugh...

* * *

Now with the wound in his stomach frozen shut with ice, Suichi pressed forward and roared as he attack. He swung his chain sword, with only the sharp tip able to cut or pierce, and engaged Horoshi in a deadly back-and-forth. Suichi swung then drew back to block. Horoshi swung only to draw back and block as well. Suichi stepped in with his swings just as much as he stepped back for them, trying to keep his range for his small range to find some target. Horoshi only advanced, forcing Suichi to lose ground and power in his defense with each attack. Suichi mentally commanded his chain to extend from out of his hand and lengthened the grip he had without lengthening the reach of the solid chain-sword itself.

Now he used both hands and managed to draw with Horoshi's power as they swung. They met blades in a simultaneous downward slash. They held each other at bay, pressing against each other, but Suichi's weakened body lost first. Instead of giving in to his enemy's force Suichi took in a deep breath and breathed out a thick, icy mist to mask his escape. Horoshi's eyes weren't fooled and he followed Suichi through the mist. He swung blind and grazed Suichi's side.

_How can he follow me?_ Suichi wondered. He burst out of the mist and back into the bright silver light. _It must be this kido he used. Somehow it lets him see through illusions perfectly. I'll have to use something else, in that case...._ With Horoshi out of sight, Suichi stabbed his chain into the ground and summoned it back up into his hand, like a needle and thread going through solid ground. The slack of the chain fed from Suichi's arm and was hidden as he walked in front of it, his body blocking it from view. Horoshi appeared once more and attacked Suichi with a running slash to the side. He pushed Suichi away and, before Suichi could engage him again, Horoshi attacked the threaded chain.

"Snare!" Suichi shouted. His chain coiled back around his arm with a whipping speed. Horoshi drew his blade up just as the chain snagged through the air to catch it. Suichi glowered at him for beating his trap but quickly set up another one. He disengaged the rigidity on his chain as a blade and drew it back around his arm. Then his forearms met and the chain was transferred onto his left forearm, the mark of his offense. _"Yarinohara!"_ Suichi threw both his arms down to the side. His chain was thrust into the ground with many quick bursts of dirt and holes in the ground marking where it went. His chain was still attached to his arm, a short and continuous bracer that coiled around in a cross and a grip in the palm of his hand. He clutched the metal tight and pointed at Horoshi.

"Up!" Suichi commanded, and he flicked his wrist with two fingers pointing up. Horoshi glared down at the ground and jumped away just as a spike-tipped length of chain shot up with deadly speed from below. It fell down and whipped itself at Horoshi before it was drawn back into the ground to snake its way around. "I'll tell you this: this technique of mine is a one-battle use. It takes a lot of energy to divide evenly between each chain in the ground and move them around at will, and even more concentration to control them all at once. I've never used this in an actual fight, only in an assassination, so I wonder how well it can hold up to an experience fighter...." Suichi's arrogant grin and tired, confident eyes were met with total spire from Horoshi.

"I'll kill you" Horoshi lowed. He took his sword to his side and rushed forward. "I'll kill you with my _Joushou Hoshi Shuurai!!!_" His sword gathered a glowing light of energy as he ran. Suichi aimed his hand forward and turned his palm up, arming his spearing chains beneath the dirt. Suichi summoned up three with three fingers. Three lengths of chain shot up at Horoshi's sides. Then Suichi summoned one more and began to turn his body. The finally chain was up right in Horoshi's path. The boy tried to sidestep it, but as Suichi spun he let his arm fly out and the chain made a likewise whipping motion, lashing Horoshi's back and snaring around him as Suichi closed his palm. It brought him back to the center of the trap, surrounded by four chains all under Suichi's command, each bound to one of his fingers which he straightened in his hand. Horoshi's blade stopped its glow as he brought it up and glared from chain to chain, waiting to see the strike so he could block it.

"_**Shobatsu: Yottsubibu Semeku!!"**_ At Suichi's call the chains all thrust at Horoshi together. The body managed to save himself as much as he could and retreated so that his back was unharmed, but he could only block two chain spikes besides that. The other two stabbed into him, one in his side and the other through his gut. Horoshi grunted and was silenced by a building, burning spittle of blood crawling up his throat. The chains retreated at Suichi's order and snaked through the ground. They all burst up under his hanging arm and formed the continuous chain that hung with a spike from his middle finger on his left arm again. Horoshi fell coughing and groaning to his knees with his sword stabbed into the ground to prop him up. He heaved breaths, tired and injured, gasping in pain.

"Damn, kid" Suichi said. "You've got some high resilience, you know? I killed Hollows with less of a pain threshold than you."

"**Shut up"** Horoshi growled. He stomped his foot and forced himself up to a full stand. He swilled the blood in his mouth around and spat it on the ground. He took his sword at his side and slid back, preparing another charge. Suichi panted from the lack of energy and grabbed the tip of his chain in his right hand, preparing to draw it out tight to block his attack. Horoshi's blade, held with the tip near the ground, began to glow once more and all the light of Suichi's vision was drained so that the sword was brighter than even the brightly glowing air surrounding him.

_Is this a trick?_ Suichi wondered. _That light kido is still active, I can feel it, but it's not bright anymore. Has the light become energy inside of his sword? Is such an active kido spell possible?_ Horoshi growled and bent his knees, building up an explosive force in his legs. He dashed forward with mad speed and drew his sword up, ready to cut down with it. Then he stopped outside of his own range, stomped into his attack and powered his sword down into the dirt. The glowing arc of light in the air hummed with a bright whine of sound and all the light gathered at the arc's apex.

"_**JOUSHOU HOSHI SUURAI!!!"** _At Horoshi's roaring call the light energy blasted as a laser straight through Suichi's chain and his chest. Once the beam of light had died the bright, silver hue of the field came back from the shining starlight spheres above and cast a dark shadow on the ground where Suichi fell. Horoshi stopped in his violent, rushing rage long enough to take a calming breath and clutch his bleeding wounds. "Take that...you bastard" he said through his panting. Suichi did not move at all. In the silver starlight that hung in the air, the world and its powers considered him dead...

* * *

While one battle seemed lost and another drew itself to a draw of power, a third battle seemed to tip its favor with the wild and aimless shinigami who fought like an animal. The golden-armed Hoji stood in a moment of victory, his arms wound and his body stepped back while is for, Kakugari, painfully recovered himself and propped his body up with his sword.

"You are a powerful man" Kakugari said in an unamused growl. "I admire...your skill."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "You should do less of that and more planning. You're gonna need to whip out some incredible crap if you're gonna keep up with me, man."

"Indeed I shall!" Kakugari announced. He swung his sword onto his back and slid the flat edge along the bulging length of his shoulders. Hoji stepped back and wound up a punch that knotted so tight it caught the air and stirred it around viciously in a tight ball. Kakugari let out a calming sigh of air. Hoji stepped forward and punched his blast of air at Kakugari. "Wrap me with your sanctity, and let those without peace know of the grips of hell. Hold, _**Hajijoui!!!**_" Kakugari blocked the blast of air with a thick, brown leather cloak that curled around his hand and up over his shoulders. His sword became a long and thick mantle lined with fur colored like tanned leather on the outside and invisibly black on the inside. It wrapped around his neck with a thick matting of fur as a weaved knot and brought about a second wind to the warrior's face.

"Hahahahaha!" Kakugari laughed. "Lo and behold, you crazed, animal-man! This cape of mine is the integration of my power with the forces of all nature that is not of this world! It is my desire to build order in a chaotic land. Hence, this sword of mine and the soul we share hath manifested into a cloak of binding powers, **capable of capturing and devouring the energies of Hollows and shinigami alike! This cape thrives on stolen energy!!!**" Hoji looked personally scorned by Kakugari's ability. He hopped back and made a slash in the air which traveled as quick blades of wind right into Kakugari's cloak. "FAH! Don't waste your time, fool! It shall be short the work I make of you! Nothing escapes the hold of my cloak! No Hollow or shinigami lives once I have encased them with my power!!!" Hoji retreated into the trees and sped away. Kakugari gave chase, his mighty and deadly cloak billowing around him as he ran.

_That's all kinds of not fair!_ Hoji thought. _What kind of power lets him eat other people!?_

_You weren't listening, Hoji_ Torakaze began, connecting to his mind through their combined energies. _He devours power. It's more than likely once he catches his prey he saps all of their pressure from them, then uses his sword to kill them in their weakened state._

_Tch!_ Hoji scoffed. _It's still crap! Apart from that he can block my ranged attacks without trying. It's a weapon and armor for him! That sucks!_

_Not at all dissimilar to what you wield_ Torakaze said. _The gauntlets you wear are both a weapon and armor, but just like armor they can be worn down in the length of a fight, and like any sword the blades of your claws can dull. Can you see now, with what little you've been doing, just how much those blades had dulled?_ Hoji took a look at his claws as he ran and saw that the sharpened edges had lost their golden shine.

_So I'm limited in my expenditure of power_ Hoji thought. _You useless bitch. You need to train more!_

_It's hardly a matter of training_ Torakaze explained _as much as it is an inborn limit. It's something that you have to work on, not I. I am merely here to help you and to grant you power. It's up to you how they are best used._ Hoji stopped running and slid on the ground with steady feet. He could feel Kakugari approaching and jumped up, taking to the tops of the trees. Thunder shook the sky and lightning flashed in the distance. Hoji turned and was now out of sight of the previous guiding star light, far and away from his friends and where they were fighting. He couldn't even see the road he traveled on, despite how closed passage was where the forest was surrounded by hills.

_Tch_ Hoji scoffed internally. _He's got a lot of guts to try and sneak up on me, if that's what he's doing..._ Suddenly a breeze shifted Hoji's pigtail and he turned. Kakugari leaped up through the leaves with his cloak held in one hand and he threw it at Hoji, engulfing him with a wide stretch of the ethereal fabric. Hoji saw himself consumed by a great darkness that stretched out all around him as the cape flew past him and hooked back in like elastic, coiling itself into a tight but empty knot. Kakugari's menacing grin fell when he saw that Hoji was not within his grasp. Instead, he flew straight up, clawing the air to soar through the wind of the rain. With his claws gripping the air itself, Hojji stopped high up and waited, staring down and panting hard.

"That was close!" Hoji stated. "That damn cape...how far can it-" Before Hoji could complete his rhetorical inquiry, his thoughts were answered. The cape was stretching again, further and further up, thinning out into sticky gripping nodes. Hoji clawed at the air and moved to the side but the cape did not follow. Hoji started running through the air straight down like a tiger on solid ground, racing the cape down to its owner. _I think I get it. It can only move in one straight direction at a time, and it can't stretch unless he throws it himself! If I can land a good, solid blow on him I should get an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow!_

Hoji landed on the leaves first and wasted a second recovering his lost balance on the lofty surface. Then, with a growl, he pounced forward just as Kakugari's cape returned to him. With the other hand, unseen by Hoji, Kakugari took the outer side of the cape and whipped it around to block Hoji's attack. Hoji grabbed at the top of the fur-lined fray and vaulted over the cape and into perfect range with a fist drawn far back.

"**TCHEEEEYAHHH!!!!"** Hoji delivered a powerful straight to Kakugari's face, pulling himself into the punch by pulling on the cloak which was ironically Kakugari's guard. Hoji pressed into the cloak, kicked off of Kakugari's guarded arm and rolled over himself with leaps and flips through the air to get a good distance from his foe once more. Kakugari grabbed his face with a hand and kept his cloak around him as much as he could. Then, parting his fingers, he glared Hoji down.

"Animal bastard" he growled. "**I shall devour you!"**

"TCH!" Hoji shouted. "Try it, ass!" He posed with both palms turned up, his index and middle finger pointed out with each hand, one arm forward and the other curled up and back behind his head with his whole torso turned sideways and a wide parting of his legs. "I'll rip you to shreds!!!"

* * *

Their fight had only just begun. Shin and Netami clashed again and again under the dark sky of endless rain. Shin spun his scythe over his head and around his arms while Netami took his sword in one arm and threw slash after slash with the full movements of his body. Shin's deathly black weapon met against Netami's menacing sword in a perfect draw of raw attacking power. Shin backed away and came in spinning his body, winding his scythe around his side and swinging it out with the gathered energy of his own movement powering it into Netami's guard. Netami refused to give any way but he felt the force of the attack regardless and backed away, spinning his sword in a loose grip around his body.

Then he rushed in again with a stab. Shin blocked it with the shaft of his scythe and was pushed back. He took both hands facing the same way and spun the scythe so hard it hovered in the air and blocked a myriad small cuts that came his way. Shin caught the scythe, let it slow as he spun it between his fingers and drew it back to his side like a sword aimed to the ground.

_I sort of get it_ Shin noted. _His sword has such power that each time he swings it **cuts an uncountable number of times.** Each attack is either one tremendous swing or a bunch of small ones that I can't see. It's just force flying through the air....impressive._

_Don't squander your time admiring your enemy_ Shikei lowed. _He has the advantage over you! Come up with a way to balance it out!_

"Huah!" Shin grunted. He spun away with a slide and rotated his scythe around his back. Netami charged in and drew his sword up. He swung it down hard onto the shaft of Shin's scythe. Shin was crouching down low under his weapon and pushed Netami's blade away. As he rose up he felt his scythe shift in his loosened grip with each cut it deflected and he kept his body turned to the side with his head poised down and forward. His scythe was spun full around as it deflected each tiny slash Netami's blade had thrown. When Shin's feet met his body stopped its slow rise and his legs slid apart which his scythe held in its natural position. He charged in and swung, forcing Netami to defend. Shin swung his scythe again and let it leave his hand into a single-handed grip. His scythe spun around his back came back into his right hand, left his left hand and followed through with another slash into Netami's guard.

Shin repeated his attack pattern, swinging and freely letting his scythe spin on its own motion around his body, the power of each slash increasing in power each time. Netami lowed and timed his blocks with Shin's accelerating swings. Shin spun with his scythe, around one way then changed direction and guided his scythe with only the arcs of power he pushed through when the scythe spun in Netami's direction.

"This is the ultimate scythe-fighting style" Shin said. "My _Saishuu Serifu_. It allows me to attack endlessly!"

"Does it?" Netami said. He stopped Shin's scythe dead in its rotation with a flat kick to its curved, flat edge. With Shin stopped and the shaft of his scythe straight across his back, laced between his arms, Netami kicked it down and swung his sword in high with a decapitating aim. Shin slid down the shaft and let himself fall to the ground. The single powerful attack made by Netami produced only one massive stroke which blew a gust in the air. Shin grabbed his scythe and kicked himself up. He and his weapon were upside down with Shin holding onto the shaft behind his head, and with that balance he kicked Netami square in the jaw from below. Netami stepped back and then leaped away when Shin tried kicking again, this time with enough power to spin his body and pull the scythe from the ground. He became a quickly rotating saw in the air that flipped itself over and landed on its toes and one hand for balance.

Shin grinned. Netami was already charging in again with a destructive, wanton drive for blood. Shin brought his scythe up straight and blocked the immediate quick slice to his neck. Netami's blade caught on Shin's scythe and was deflected away with a push. Shin rushed forward, dodging the invisible blades from the sword by outracing them, and came in low. His scythe swept across the ground in an uppercut that led Shin to stand straight and blew Netami's guard up with a snap of his wrist. Netami winced at the pain, focusing away from Shin just long enough to lower his guard. Shin stepped in, let his scythe stay up in the air, took the shaft in both hands steadily and jabbed Netami with the flat butt of the shaft, right between his collar bones.

"**Die!**" Shin growled. He stepped forward as Netami staggered back and brought his scythe down with a crash to the ground. Netami's body was exposed to the attack and was cut from inside his shoulder down through his thigh. Shin let his scythe spin around and lurched forward in a crouching walk to deliver another, horizontal attack powered with the hold of the shaft against his back and under the pit of his elbow. The blade was smashed into Netami's sword and they stood off for a moment before Shin spun away in a leap and held his scythe behind his back with firm pressing hands and gentle fingers. Netami looked down at his skin and saw that blood was drawn from the shallow, skin-deep cut. He looked up at Shin with a seething glare and a wicked grin.

"I've never been hit so early in a fight before" Netami admitted. "That's good. For a man like you, that shows a lot of promise, a lot of real potential."

"Yep" Shin flatly said. He took the end side of the shaft and swung his scythe in a wide arc along the grass to bring it up in front of his body again. Then he let his legs drift apart again and held his scythe in a natural position. "I'd say it's hard to judge a fighter from the first couple moves in a fight, but I don't doubt your abilities. I'm sure you've killed men stronger than me before, right?"

"I don't know" Netami said. "How strong are you?" He gathered a thick aura of darkness in his right hand. His fingers curled around the power and gripped it in a fist. Shin set the shaft of Shikei into the wet ground, ready to dodge. Netami thrust his palm forward and let out a crackling, black pulse of energy. Shin slid to the side and his scythe's shaft changed its position. Using the ground as a solid point and his scythe as a pivot, he pulled and pushed his arms with enough force to pull his own body to the side. Netami's power hadn't all left with that one blast and he fired another. Shin dashed forward and began running, weaving as he did, for Netami.

"**Makai...**" Netami began. Shin swung his scythe straight to the side and interrupted Netami's kido. Their blades were already drawn to the side enough for Shin to plainly see Netami's seething orange eyes behind his draping black hair. Shin grinned. It was so sudden and unexpected of a movement, and one so full of killing intent that Netami's mouth fell open in surprise. Shin pulled himself on Netami's sword, which stayed firm in his grip like a tree in the ground, and once again used the pull-and-push force of pivots to power his forehead into Netami's face. His scythe shaft was turned so much from where the blades were hooked that even it was rammed into Netami's shoulder.

Once Shin's blow had landed sufficiently and his body had powered through enough for even Netami to falter backwards he unhooked his scythe and jumped far back. Netami landed on a knee to save himself the shame of falling on his back and held his mouth, panting and breathing hard through his nose.

_Son of a bitch_ Netami thought. _This man charged headfirst into me! Literally! He's...completely unafraid of death, isn't he?_ To Netami's thoughts Shin only smiled and furrowed his brow, ignoring the pain of clashing two hard heads together so listlessly...

* * *

Yarinohara: Spear Field

Joushou Hoshi Shuurai: Rising Star Attack (or Lightning)  
Shobatsu: Yottsubibu Semeku: Punishment: Four-Tailed Torture  
Hajihoui: Holding Cloak


	90. Four Fighting 3

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

"_RAAAAAAAGHHHH!!!!"_ The animal that Jin had become charged in with a constant roaring. He swung one arm at Senshi. The other Senshi retreated. Jin stomped forward and sliced through the body with his other wicked blade. That Senshi was gone and, from the retreating Senshi, another came out from behind and rushed forward with his sword held up near his shoulder. With a grunt he jumped forward and sliced into Jin's shoulder. His skin was like hardened clay, baked a billion times into a rock-like hide, and he barely drew blood. Jin shrugged him off with such force that Senshi was thrown into a nearby tree. Jin rushed forward and delivered a flat kick into Senshi, buckling his body and the tree into breaking.

That Senshi was gone as well and the original was just out of sight. Jin took a long, snorting sniff from the air and growled out his breath. He turned to the darkness, his glimmering eyes aimed for Senshi himself. Jin crouched down and sprung up, making a high and distant leap over the trees.

"Think before acting!" Senshi said. He passed through more trees in his retreat while another of him leaped up through the trees to intercept the mad flight of Jin. Senshi waited for Jin to swing and blocked, staying with Jin in the air and lowering with him onto the canopy of the trees. "Why do you waste such time with war, boy? Have you never been in peace before?"

"**NO!!!**" Jin raged. Jin pressed both his swords into Senshi's with the intent on breaking his block. Senshi held firm, though the pressure of Jin's pure physique began to make him sink back down through the leaves he stood on with his floating pressure. "There's nothing in my mind that resembles peace! **All I know is WAR!!!**" Jin rose his blades up high. Senshi, rather than sacrifice yet another body to attack, acted to stall Jin's advance to his other body by blocking. Jin smashed both blades into his sword and cracked the blade. Now drunk on rage, Jin started growling with a wide, wild grin as he made strike after strike as rapidly as his long arms could carry, smashing both his blades one after another into Senshi's sword until they started to hit flesh. After so many impacts and after so much blind, terrible power, Jin ceased his attack and stood hunched over a bloody patch of leaves in the rain, huffing out foggy breaths.

Senshi was far away and hidden. He had reached a thin stream in the forest that the rain was already beginning to thicken and took refuge in the mud. He coated his body with the pure scent of the Earth and waited hidden behind a bush. _That mad beast will eventually follow my scent here_ Senshi thought _but even so, he shall find me not! I have faced pursuers not unlike him before, Hollows as well, who searched me out by means of my own particularly strong and manly pheromone scent. Alas, in those times, my methods to hide were not as brilliant as this, for not the smell of either fresh fruits nor fresher fish could mask the powerful smell of my awesome stature. Now, coated in this thick river mud, where fish and creatures similar have infinitely swam through, casting their scent into this mud to overpower even the fresh scent of the grass that grows so close!_

A flash of lightning lit up the shady forest. A roll of thunder dulled the rushing sound of rain. _I only hope that he passes by before my cover has been washed back to the ground by this torrent of rain..._ Another flash of lightning. A shadow was cast in the brightly lit forest. **Jin was walking near.** Senshi only saw him for the moment of light, and then as the thunder cracked once more Jin entered the area across the stream from where Senshi hid. He was still smelling the air, his eyes wide and darkened with deep-black rings of hatred and his blood-red bangs jagged in front of his face.

"You're here" Jin said, still sniffing like a loyal hound. He slowly lowered himself to his toes and his hands and sniffed closer to the ground. He immediately found a footprint pressed in the soft grass. He snarled and barked up with a gruff shout and a snap of his teeth back together in a pressed grin. "I know where you are..." Senshi didn't believe him. He stayed perfectly hidden and fixed his eyes on the wild man crouched down to find him. Jin began crawling with quick moves of his arms and slow drags of his feet, a spidery figure clutching two thick butchery blades in each balled fist. He sniffed around the bank of the river and looked down into the water. Lightning flashed and cast a bright glare off the creek. Jin didn't blink or flinch at all from the bright flash but stared at it and let dots form.

"Gah!" Jin exclaimed. "He's sent big, round bugs into this water to kill the fish! That asshole!"

_Madness cannot mask stupidity, can it?_ Senshi thought. Jin reached into the water, feeling around with three fingers while still keeping his blade in his hand. He felt around on the flatly rounded creekbed of silt and mud and then came to an uneven, deep patch where stones were still loose and rolling around.

"He's been here!" Jin realized. He perched his head up high and straightened his arms, still keeping on the toes of his feet like an animal. "He's covered with mud!" Senshi was frightened. "He took mud from the ground to try and hide....so he's still here. There aren't any trails of mud in the grass, so he must have walked...**in the water!!**" Along the river up the stream there were only two things: a shrub and a rock. Jin stood up and wrung his fingers in the metal handles of his swords. He was on the side with the rock so he advanced to that first.

_I can outrun him_ Senshi realized. _Until my reiatsu has recharged itself, Gemini is unable to replicate me yet again. If he smashes that rock it will occupy his mind enough that I shall be able to escape!_ Jin then departed from the bank and began pushing through the weak current toward the bush. _DAMN! Is this insanity of his some form of hidden genius!? Has he realized that I was here from the very beginning!?_ Jin turned once more and stood with his arms raised and his legs parted.

"**NO SURVIVAL!!!"** Jin bellowed. He swung at both the shrub and the rock. He split the rock and his arm was stopped in the bush by the clash of metal.

"Very well" Senshi said, standing up full with both hands blocking Jin's blade. "I shall face you down properly! Prepare for retribution, young man!" Jin turned his eye on Senshi and twisted his body. He stepped his right leg across his left and let his right arm come swinging in with all the force of his torqued body. Senshi pushed Jin's left blade away, sheathed his sword fast and leaped just over Jin's swing. Both of Jin's arms were crossed with great tension at his chest and both blades were wound back behind him. Senshi landed with one hand on his sheathe and the other on the hilt of his sword.

"**Gemini Charge!!!"** He called. He drew his sword, slashed, and sheathed it back all within the movement of a flash-step. When he stopped and the hilt of his blade clacked back into its sheathe he was behind Jin, who had swung as well with both arms extended out like wings with great cleaving streaks in the air. The rain fell, soon joined by blood. Jin lowered his arms laxly and turned with a mad, evil grin and dark, glowing eyes. Across his belly was a cut that bled down to his belt. Senshi could not move. He did not bleed nor was he injured but somehow his arms were shaking and his knees were weak. Only by the sheer manly force of will did he not fall over until Jin had turned full around and kicked him. Senshi tumbled away numbly and stopped himself to sit on the ground.

"You ever fight a real animal before?" Jin asked. He spun both his blades in his hands and lowered his head to darken the shade of his brow even more. **"A man who lives without rules or limits, that kind of animal?"**

"Even such limits as honor and humanity?" Senshi lowed. He stood up with a hand tightly clutching near the top of his sheathe. "You say you're a warrior? What kind of warrior, man, anything, would attack in such a way?" Jin just smiled. Senshi's brow furrowed deeply with scorn. His sword had been sheathed only so that it could not be unsheathed. He checked it, very slowly drawing it, **but the blade ended in a break just above the hilt.** Senshi was without a weapon against a man who was, to him, a living weapon...

* * *

Horoshi stood over Suichi's body at length and stared down at it. The light of his kido had faded. Now he stood in an open area of the pathway in a cool, depleted mist, staring at the fallen shinigami. Then, with a scornful hiss, he scoffed and smashed the head with his foot. It shattered into ice and frost.

"That bastard" Horoshi growled. "He must have replaced his body with this thing when I wasn't concentrating!!! Damn him! **I'll kill him yet!!!**" Horoshi was reduced to growling in the open, so utterly mad that his sword hand shook. Suichi was gone, vanished like the assassin he was, and left his opponent with neither the honor of victory or defeat. Instead, he took to the woods, towards the safest source of pressure he could perceive.

_As much as he'll hate it_ Suichi thought _I'm going to help Hoji out since I can't fight that kid. I've exhausted practically all of my energy already just screwing around with attacks that hardly worked! Whatever he did with that illumination kido was just a set up to power his sword for that attack. If he revealed his shikai in a fight it may very well be the death of me..._ Suichi, having surrendered his well-trained honor for life, continued dashing through the forest, weaving his dark figure through the trees with his sword sheathed at the back of his waist, with no end to his run in sight.

_How far away did Hoji go?_ Suichi wondered.

Hoji and Kakugari continued their fight as if they were the only ones fighting in the world. They existed and one of them would die. That's how their thoughts seemed to go.

"TCH!" Hoji exclaimed. He kicked up high, just missing Kakugari's chin as the man dodged to the side. He grabbed the edge of his cape and swung it in. Hoji retreated and clawed the ground to slow down. "Ha!" Hoji shouted. "_**Kazetsumi!!!**_" He bladed fingers swept in a crescent arc that scraped the ground and ended in his whole body following through with a slashing uppercut. Four blades of wind formed and rushed through the air into Kakugari's blocking cape. They were strong enough to push him back despite his defense and ended when he threw out his cape to throw that slicing wind aside.

"Ha!" he laughed. "Is that the be-" Hoji was already at his face with a flying-knee to the nose. Hoji's arms were crossed in spite. He leaned his body forward and pushed off of Kakugari's face to see it scowling hard. His hands were already reaching for his cape as Hoji slowly fell. _I'll absorb every single ounce of his reiatsu and crush his hollow body into dust!!!_

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He landed plainly, stepped a foot back and held out an arm with an open palm. "It's just a piece of clothing, in the end. You think you can fight against the wind with something so flimsy?" Hoji spread out his fingers and forced his hand forward into Kakugari's abdomen. Then he blew out a long breath. A huge blast of air began blowing out of his guarded, golden palm into Kakugari's skin which curved off of him and around in a round stream that billowed his cape far and away. Kakugari was stunned at first, then the scornful and mysteriously evil smile returned to his face.

"I have faced enemies like you" Kakugari said, "beasts which, with but a howl, summoned up the demonic winds from the north to blow against me. Never once did I let them command my consuming cape! It absorbed them all, just the same, wind or no, for it is of the ability of my powerful weapon to resist all force but mine!!" At the end of his speech his cape edges consciously came back into his hands and the back of his long cape stayed billowed and forced back like an open sail against a powerful wind, blown up so wide that it pressed against creaking trees. He grinned with wide eyes as Hoji kept blowing into the back of his hand and brought his cape in to absorb the young man's body.

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed, stopping his gust stream. "I thought so!" Hoji gripped Kakugari's skin and made five deep cuts with his claws. Then, with the speed of the wind, he slid out from under the pressing clutch and stomped his foot to stop, a mighty wind still blowing against him. He stopped the wind by taking hold of it, spun it around and powered himself to toss the whole invisible body at Kakugari.

"I shan't stand here to take this!" Kakugari said. He took the edge of his cape and threw it forward. **"Reach!!!"** The extending, amorphous form of the cape's fur-lined edge reached out with amoebic extensions for Hoji.

"**CATCH!!!**" Hoji roared. He threw the wind against the reaching arms of the cape and they diverged into the nearby trees where they stuck and snapped to tension. Kakugari withdrew his arm and the stretchy cape was brought back to him. Hoji beat it there with his right arm wound back at his waist. He growled and stomped, powering his left shoulder suddenly into Kakugari's gut. The tall man resisted without his cape but with a solid punch into Hoji's drawn-back elbow, jarring him out of his planned attack. "Tch" he scoffed. Hoji pushed himself away with his left arm and jumped back before Kakugari could catch him with the swipe of his cape.

"You are a marvel at retreating" Kakugari said. "Surly all that amazing speed is not without its use in proper combat, is it?"

"Oh, you're a bitch" Hoji growled. He shook his head and his arm to get the tingling numbness off of it and set up once more, his left arm straight up in front of his face and his right drawn back.

_Don't overreact, Hoji _Torakaze warned. _Mind your condition. Mind mine!_

_I am_ Hoji said. He uncurled his index and middle finger on his left hand and saw the blade had lost its razor shine. His blades were beginning to dull already from his constant output of force on the wind. _This isn't getting any better for either of us, but something tells me he has a lot more energy than I do. How long would it take for you to recover?_

_I can't while you're fighting_ she replied.

_I'm well aware of that!_ Hoji snapped back. _If I stopped using you for a bit, how long would it take?_

_It's not worth it_ Torakaze said. _It would take too long for such a fight. You would have to run away and lose him completely to give me enough time to recover._

_Forget that_ Hoji thought. _Just stay steady and useful for a little longer. I've got a plan._

_Damn_ Torakaze said. _I was hoping you'd get to live a little longer than this, but if you're destined to die-_

_Shut up, bitch!_ Hoji shouted. "Alright, ass. Let's get this going!" Hoji ran forward with no particular strategy visible. He held open his left hand with the claws aimed forward and shouted as he stepped, rapidly closing the space between him and his opponent. Kakugari closed in as well with his cape gripped in his right hand, the arm drawn back as if to punch as well.

"Then it is a contest of will!" Kakugari exclaimed. "Strength be damned, we shall push fore with only our guile of battle to inspire us!!!"

"**TCHAAAAA!!!**" Hoji roared. He clawed into the air and made a pouncing leap, powered by his legs and his arm at once, doubling his speed in an instant, and then he made the gold-knuckled punch to Kakugari's grinning face, right between the eyes. He had abandoned his defense and was strictly a fighting creature. He clawed the air with his left hand, bringing it in to pierce through Kakugari's neck with what ferocity it still had in its dulled blades. Hoji's hand swiped through something unseen and thick, slowed and then stopped before reaching close to the full length of its sweeping arc of travel. Hoji looked over and saw that Kakugari's hand was still punching and that his claw had caught the tar-like fabric of his cape as it was in mid-swing.

…_.....ah, dammit!_ Hoji thought. Suddenly he was overtaken by the force of Kakugari's devouring cape. He felt his strength drain from him the instant the engulfing substance surrounded his flesh. His mouth was covered and he lost the means to breathe. His right arm and leg flailed away as he fell defenseless to the ground, the cape fusing his body into it and devouring his reiatsu which instantaneously began healing Kakugari. His nose straightened out immediately and he took in a grand breath of damp air through it.

"Ahhh!" he sighed. "What a wonderful day for a fight to the death, don't you agree, my maniacal friend?" Hoji couldn't speak. His eyes were wide and jittery with an incredible sense of anger. With what energy he had he continued the fight, piercing through Kakugari's sock and stabbing his right claws through his foot. The shining sharpness of his claws was back and with his fingers in the ground he raked forward, **slicing Kakugari's foot apart.**

"GAAAAHHH!!!" Kakugari screamed.

_You clever bitch_ Hoji thought, trying to communicate with his sword again. _You transferred all of your energy from the left gauntlet into this one, didn't you? I'll make up for this later, but for now, thank you!_ Hoji took his newly sharpened, bladed claw and made a body-winding swipe for the cloak. It turned into tattered, dark patches and freed Hoji to jump up and leap away, leaving Kakugari lacking a foot. The remainder of the dark cloth fell from Hoji's body like shed skin and left his entire left side looking pale and uneven. The left gauntlet was gone. "One-handed martial arts? **Why not!?**" He posed with his lone gauntlet forward and his claws knotted into a hard fist.

* * *

Shin, tactless in his ego, grinned and scratched at the sore red spot on his forehead where he rammed into Netami's mouth. Then, in a gall move, he spun his scythe between his fingers in a slicing circle and took steps backward as he did, keeping a constant rotation that built force upon force within the speed of his scythe's blade.

"Which way should I cut you now?" Shin asked. Netami stood up and wiped the blood from his lip away with a throw of his arm. "Across the chest? Shoulder to hips? Maybe your arm can come off...." Netami swung his sword from where he stood and let his tearing blades travel Shin's way. He guarded the same as before. He simply held his scythe in front of his body and let it slow itself down, bracing it from behind with only one finger. The blades hit into the shaft of his weapon and turned and spun it into more and more of them. None hit Shin, they only sailed past him if they didn't hit his scythe.

"You know" Shin began as he rested his weapon on his shoulder, **"I don't think you **_**need **_**that head there..."** Netami armed himself, both hands on the hilt and the sword pointed forward from his shoulder, and dashed in. He swung hard to the side which Shin blocked with the blunt end of his blade. Their weapons parted, Netami drawing up for another quick attack and Shin beginning his spinning style. "I'll give you the last words today...**Saishuu Serifu!**" He blocked again and let his scythe spin freely around his body, rotating with the blade leading it and his arms and hands providing pivots for it to spin around. Netami stabbed with a powerful thrust, followed it with a slash from where the blade pointed, an attack in the opposite direction and then a swing to stop Shin's weapon. All of his attacks and subsequent waves of blades were deflected, all of them only adding to Shikei's constant acceleration.

"Not working" Shin lowed. He slid his foot toward Netami, caught the shaft along his forearm and powered down a fierce swing into the ground. Netami stepped back just in time and stomped on the back of the scythe's blade to keep it in the ground. The rain kept up so much that neither of them noticed it anymore, and thus Netami was initially shocked when Shin managed to cut his blade through the wet dirt so easily and let it spin in reverse at his side. He quickly changed it over to his left side where the blade led down once more and then stepped back while Netami advanced.

"**Makai Myaku!**" Netami called. He pressed his open palm forward and a dark blast echoed out. Shin jumped clear over it with his scythe as a black, wide halo over his head. He stopped it and spun himself with its force in the air, leading his body down into a mighty swing powered with both hands.

"_**Dokurosatsu!**_" Shin lowed in response. His scythe swung down and into the ground while his own body stayed in the air. He took the shaft and hooked the length of it across the shelf of his shoulders and between both arms, then kicked his legs and swung again. Netami blocked the attack and retreated, curious and defensive as Shin continued his attack. He swung his scythe into the ground, moved down the shaft and swung again, repeating until his scythe was slashing in a circle as a black, slashing wheel with Shin spinning sideways in the air, holding it in the immovable grip of his right hand.

"What the hell?" Netami said. "Is this supposed to be a serious attack?" Shin kept it up, his body spinning the scythe into the ground, pulling him along as a wheel would, piercing into the dirt and slashing up a splatter of mud each time, creating a slim path carved into the ground as he went.

"You should treat any attack seriously" Shin said, unfazed by what would seem to be incurable dizziness. "You never know what can really kill you in this world..." Shin's scythe suddenly met Netami's block, over and over, building speed each time. "Everything of my style is based on rotation, on making a straight-shafted, in-curve-bladed weapon into a razor-sharp circle. It's not a weapon that can just be swung around randomly, it requires tremendous skill and power to master using a scythe for combat!!"

"It's nothing more than a novelty to me!" Netami said, catching Shin's blade and keeping it still. Shin hooked himself onto the shaft and pressed his back against the straight metal to steady himself while still holding it in his hand. "A sword is all one needs to fight in this, or any, world. Anything beyond the power of a sword, the perfect form and substance, is meaningless to those who can't use it!"

"Well that works for you" Shin said. He dropped down onto the blunt edge of Netami's blade and kicked him in the face. "**You sword **_**stays**_** a sword, after all, but we're not all so lucky are we?**" Netami was stumbled backwards from Shin's unexpected attack. Shin landed back on the ground and spun his scythe back up right so the blade was up and the butt of the shaft was in the ground. Netami held his face in pain and let himself retreat by a few steps. He gripped his sword tight in his left hand and glowered through the space between his fingers. His orange eyes were shining out with a visible, almost palpable, danger. He spoke to Shin with his eyes and told him only of death and murder. Shin grinned and stabbed his scythe down into the moist dirt at his side. Then he went to cracking his knuckles with a fist in hand, one at a time.

"You're an arrogant man" Netami said. "Ego won't win everything. If you can't back what you say with skill you're better off with the honor of killing yourself. At least then you'll know you died to a worthy opponent that you couldn't truly defeat."

"I'd rather die in a battle" Shin said as he rolled his head around, cracking his neck. "Not that I care about honor. Just fighting."

"Is that why you're here?" Netami asked. His grin had returned as he watched Shin prepare himself. Shin took in a calming breath, armed his scythe and spun it as a dark blur around his body to get it into pose, the tip of the shaft and blunt curve of the blade aimed at Netami.

"Yup" Shin said. **"I fight til I die, then if I get to, fight my way through Hell."** Netami swung his blade into a stylish spin around his body and set it yet again at his shoulder. The grass around him lightly fell and the ran dripped away from his feet. He ran in. Shin engaged him. Netami and Shin both swung and caught each other's weapons. They parted and tried again, once again coming to a draw.

Netami wound his sword from his hip over his head and stomped forward to power an attack down through Shin's guard. Shin spun away and swung his scythe. Netami dodged the blade and swung up from the grass. Shin's side was exposed and he blocked what he could of the invisible blades flying at him but still his kimono was cut and his flesh was hit. He was strong enough to ignore it and tough enough that he didn't bleed. Instead he turned his scythe around and rushed in, powering a sweeping horizontal attack into Netami's upside-down sword guard.

Netami had the pinky-finger sides of his hands pressed together on the hilt, his right hand lower on the handle, and used his awkward position to make an arcing swing for Shin's neck. The sheer pressure of it made a red streak across his skin, but Shin retreated before the blade of air blasted out and cut the rain apart. Netami flashed up to Shin with his sword already swung and pressed into Shin's horizontal block. Netami took the advantage in terms of bloodletting madness and headbutted the blunt edge of his sword, powering a myriad of tiny attacks into Shin's blade that shook his guard down. Then he slid his sword up and stabbed bone-deep into Shin's chest, scraping his sternum.

_AHHHHH, nostalgia..._ Shin mentally groaned. He made a similar effort and hooked the blade of his scythe into Netami's hip. When they broke away Shin's scythe blade scraped through Netami's thick skin and drew blood just as Netami had on Shin.

"We're only going forward when we both bleed" Shin said. "But who will bleed to death first?"

"Whoever loses his head" Netami said. He rushed in, leaving Shin to grin and raise his defense while the grim phantom of Death watched over them both from within the dark metal of the scythe. Shikei observed intently as Shin fought with him, his skull face giving no emotion but the flatness of death...

* * *

Kazetsumi: Wind Claw

Dokurosatsu: Skull Splitter (Satsu meaning, among things, kill and murder)


	91. Four Fighting 4

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

_Although my blade may be broken_ thought Senshi, _it is still an active weapon. Therefore, my abilities with it should still activate, even with what little of the blade remains! I can still use Gemini as if it were whole, but only to the extent of producing unlimited doppelgangers. I cannot use it to strike until it is repaired. Against a man.....an enemy such as this, all of my reiatsu must be conserved to repair my blade! It his body against mine now!_

That body he spoke of was quickly broken. Jin stomped forward quickly and kicked Senshi away with a screech of his animal voice. Senshi flew against a tree with his hand on his hilt. His sword was drawn out by accident and a copy appeared and took to the trees immediately. Jin madly swooped in with his blades swinging and rent Senshi's body in two. That body disappeared, not to Jin's surprise, and he took to the trees as well. The other Senshi jumped out and caught him in mid air. Senshi grabbed onto Jin's back and wound his arms up, holding tight to the hilt of his broken blade to spike the pommel into Jin's head.

"Moron" Jin lowed. He stabbed through his own body harmlessly and cut into Senshi's gut. The cloned warrior was frozen and released his leg grip around Jin's stomach. Jin spun around with his sword as a guide and slashed through Senshi's torso yet again. He vanished and Jin landed with a pound to the wet dirt, madly glancing around like a startled and hungry, excited animal to the forest darkness. The lightning flashed and Jin's senses blinded the glare of light and drowned his vision with sheer blacks and whites in a high-contrast environment, and Senshi was in plain sight with a pitch black shadow and bright white body.

_I see you!_ Jin thought. _I see all of you!!!_ Senshi rushed in and blocked Jin's one-armed downswing with what was left of his sword. The hilt and the handle, the true life of the spirit of any sword, remained intact and took incredible pressure to even fracture. Senshi's strength of spirit was such that those parts of his sword were adamant even if his blade was broken which proved itself true as he fought with Jin. The mad fighter held Senshi down with one arm and then rose up his other blade to sweep through Senshi's neck.

"Not this time!" Senshi lowed. He pressed Jin's sword up and pushed himself down at the same time, blocking Jin's decapitating swing in motion. Jin turned his wrist around before his arm wrapped around his hip and started a powerful swing upwards. Senshi jumped high over it, his knees tucked in and his fist with hilt equipped wound back before Jin's own face. "Ha!" he shouted as he punched. Jin received the attack without the ability to simply melt around it like mud and stepped away from the hit, shaking his head like a dog. "Now!" Senshi shouted. Jin was called to the presence behind him and turned with a start just as the second Senshi jumped through the air and punched him again between the eyes.

"Gah!" Jin growled. "You jumpy little bastards! I'll kill-" Senshi leaped up and delivered a rotating kick to his mouth to shut him up. "Uah" Jin groaned. The beatdown continued. One Senshi delivered a spinning backhand to Jin's hip while the other leaped up and punched as much as he could before falling back down. Jin was under attack relentlessly and violence was the only retort that could cross his mind. He took in a deep breath through his mouth and let it out in a pressurized roar.

_**HHHREEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!** _Senshi and Senshi backed away, one retreating fully into the woods, to endure the maddening pressure. It did not press down or lift up or push away. It was wild and untamed, purely chaotic in its direction. Senshi felt sick standing in it and buckled down to his knees. Jin stomped over in the loud silence of his own pressure and stomped Senshi's head into the dirt. He stomped again and again, as rapidly as his leg would work, until that Senshi disappeared.

"Do not toy with me!" Senshi shouted from the edge of the clearing. Jin huffed hot breaths at him. Another Senshi walked out, both glaring at Jin with a sheer intensity of battle, and Jin roared at them.

"I'll break you!" Jin shouted. "**I'll BREAK YOOOOOU!!!!**"

"It is you who is already broken" Senshi said. "A force lacking direction is a force lacking in power! You must direct your control and seize your own power if you want to be truly powerful! All great warriors are such a way!"

"Why?" Jin asked, his voice subdued in utter madness. "Isn't strength just the force to conquer your foes? It's all just a way to fight the enemies you have! What should matter how you get strength so long as it **kill, destroys, utterly obliterates everything that you are against!?**"

"As long as that is the limit of your understanding" Senshi said, both pointing at Jin, "you will never become truly strong!"

"**GAAAAHHH!!!**" Jin shouted. He ran in without thought or plan and blasted his pressure randomly, even so that he was hit with it. One Senshi stood on the other's shoulders and jumped up while the first blocked the brunt of Jin's attack. He chopped one of his blades forward with a punch and pushed the blocking Senshi back while the other stayed in the air. He clutched the hilt of his sword tightly and prepared to make a devastating punch to the top of Jin's blood-red head. Jin sensed the attack and rose his head up from the Senshi he was attacking, then slashed blindly overhead, missing the falling Senshi who had passed by his initial target and hit Jin in the nose again.

"**AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"** Jin screamed. The power of his rage increased the whipping force of his mad pressure and, in a thoughtless act, he stepped forward and threw his blade through both Senshi's. The blade sliced through one and the hilt and blunt, rugged end impacted on the other who had no duplicate just then and took the hit in full. He was slammed against a tree and the heavy, thick blade rested on the ground as he slouched himself to the ground in pain.

_My collarbone!_ Senshi realized. He went to touch it but even the motion from his arm seemed to hurt it. When he finally did touch it his eyes shut tight and his teeth grit with pain. _He broke it, so suddenly, and with such a random attack! What danger!_ Senshi looked down at the nefarious weapon at his feet and crawled up along the tree behind him. He glanced up in fear at Jin, who was bent over himself, standing on his toes, holding his remaining sword with his free hand held around his wrist.

"Yyyyou" Jin lowed. "Y-y-y-y-you...." he stuttered. He looked up to Senshi, who looked down at him in great shock. The madness had all left Jin's face. It was like looking at the face of an innocent youth with quivering lip and eyes filled with tears. The will to fight seemed lost in him, and now he only held his blade out of fear of letting it go. Jin stood up slowly, shakily, and held his blade in a hard but shaking grip at Senshi. "You keep away from me! I...I'm not afraid to kill you, alright!? Just go away!"

"......" Senshi just glared at Jin and the loss of his battling will. Jin stepped forward and tried to swing, but it was weak. Senshi blocked it and held it there until Jin retreated.

"Naah!" Jin roared weakly. He swung down, Senshi blocked, and then his blade was thrown back as Senshi pushed the attack away. Jin followed the weight and will of his sword all the way back and fell over himself, the clumsy giant that he was. Senshi sheathed his sword and sighed as his reiatsu traveled through his hand into his blade to repair it.

"This is over" Senshi said. "With your madness went your will to fight, and you are a warrior no longer. I have no will to challenge a child, so I shall walk away the victor of this battle. Consider it a grace from a man as grand as I that you are permitted to continue living."

"Wha...?" Jin said. Senshi began to walk away, but not before he kicked Jin's sword back to his feet.

"Do not challenge again" Senshi said "until you can hold both blades yourself. Not with someone else, and don't you dare allow your swords ever hold you, or you will surely fail yourself as both a warrior and a man!" With that, Senshi left Jin alone with his swords to cry and gather himself up. Jin had lost, and the pain of his disgrace was terrible to bear. He sobbed as he shoved his swords back into his earthen body and lamented silently, unable to speak real words, like a child who couldn't tell what emotion he felt and cried of its unknown feelings....

* * *

Kakugari stood imbalanced. His left foot was rent apart and bleeding heavily. In an unconscious effort, Hoji had gathered all the energies of Torakaze's dual-gauntlet form into only his right forearm. The gauntlet was fiercely augmented as its power had increased so substantially from the combined might of two separate yet identical weapons. The gold shone brighter, the streaks of green tiger stripes along Hoji's right arm reached up to his shoulder and along the skin over his right pectoral, three spikes had grown out of the outside edge of the single gauntlet. The tips of the claws had extended as well and curved in at the end, resembling truer tiger claws to rip and tear through the wind with.

"Don't be such a bitch about it" Hoji said. "It's not like you were moving around much anyway!" Kakugari smirked and threw the stretching fabric of his cloak down onto his foot. It absorbed it, lifted it and wrapped around so tight that Hoji could see the full form of the foot from its thinnest bone to the length of each toenail. The dark hue of the cloth began to blend in with the color of Kakugari's skin and, almost instantly, **his wound was gone and his foot repaired.**

"Does my static stance trouble your style?" Kakugari asked. "Speed and the wind, both are your forte more than mine. What I lack in such I make up for in reach and the properties of my cloak! The wind be damned, speed be damned, only the power of my swing and my reach are important!"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He left it at that and made a quick open-palm, tight-fingered jab into the air. A quick spear of air flew into Kakugari's block and was burst when he threw his cloak open again. Hoji smirked. "Speed is everything, fool. I didn't attack _once._" Kakugari was taken aback by Hoji's remark. He had just prepared himself to advance on his enemy at last when five sudden stabs of sharp air hit him in his exposed body. Hoji dashed in, suddenly charged with energy, and punched with his unarmed left hand into Kakugari's gut. This doubled the tall man over just enough for Hoji to duck back and rise up with an uppercut square to his jaw. The lifting force of Torakaze's wind was such that Kakugari's feet left the ground and his body drifted quickly up while his cloak stuck to the air and left a sort of static, thick trail of fabric in the air. Hoji jumped up with his claw open and hung down at his side for a follow up attack.

"_Joushou..._" Hoji shouted. He jumped up and slashed up, raking five deep slashes against Kakugari's side and forcing him into a free-fall spin. Then with arm wound upward and eyes narrowly glaring, Hoji spiked his taloned elbow into Kakugari's gut, right between his ribs. "_Torautsu!!!_" Kakugari was powered down to the ground and his elongated cape toppled over him. Hoji crouched in the air, turned his head down to the ground and his feet flat against the air itself, and pounced down onto Kakugari's body.

"Tch" he scoffed. "You think I'll let you heal, bastard!?" Hoji wound back a fistful of air and punched it forward with a fierce growl. "RRRAAGH!!!" The blast of wind hit the cloak and swung it back against a tree. It reacted naturally and began sapping the life and power out of the tree's bark. Hoji jumped backwards and back onto the ground, holding his gauntlet up and his left arm wound back in a sideways stance. "Get up already" Hoji said. "You think I like waiting for you to act like a moron!? Tch! I shouldn't have to wait for you to be worth hitting!" Kakugari groaned and sat back up, his cloak retracting and slowly healing him by its contact. He was grinning proudly and glaring up at Hoji as he rose. As soon as his knee was lifted off the dirt Hoji took the offense. He flash-stepped with a knee into Kakugari's lower abdomen to which his injured for only winced and smiled.

"Hey!" Hoji shouted. He reached up, just along his forehead level, and gripped Kakugari by digging his fingers into the thin space of flesh between his neck and collarbone. He reeled Kakugari forward and wound back his head for a headbutt which planted beautifully right between Kakugari's eyes. "**Quit stalling! ATTACK!!!**" Hoji was barely fazed by his own attack and resulted to continue fighting. He wound back his gauntlet and punched into Kakugari's rock-hard stomach. He knew Torakaze was still full of combat energy, and dismissed the fear that his weapon had once again weakened. It meant, however, that Kakugari had strengthened again, and Hoji retreated with a quick dodging roll backwards into a full standing backflip. Kakugari attacked by following Hoji in his whole retreat and swinging at him as soon as he was standing. Hoji leaned away from the huge arm but got hit in his neck and then again by the following uppercut.

Hoji was thrown into a tree and then pressed further by Kakugari's constant attack. He rushed in with his cloak wrapped around his fists and punched at Hoji, sapping away his strength with each hit, then delivered a powerful blow into Hoji's blocking arm. Hoji was thrown down to the ground between the trees, utterly weakened, his energy drained, and Kakugari approaching with a confident stride and a cocky grin.

"You see my power now, eh?" he said to the weakened, crawling Hoji. "It matters not what damage you do to me or my body, all can be recovered. This cloak is by no means a skillful equip of a warrior. This is the means by which I lead my life, the sap of all great powers that oppose me. This is what I control, not a power of my own will, **but I control the flow of power of others!** Without that, who can fight me?" Hoji punched his golden gauntlet to the ground and stood up. His muscles were weakened and his skin pale. His hair turned limp and heavy in its usually bustling, wind-swept tail. The rain hit him and he felt it. All parts of him were as heavy weights that he could barely hold except for the sacred ground arm of his protected by his powerful gauntlet which still held its amazing and powerful appearance. His claws were still razor sharp.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "You think you're big just because you've got a cheap-ass power? You may be strong....but you're a weakling to me."

"Hahaha!" Kakugari laughed. "I have heard such a thing from many men. It must be true then! All those who I've slain with little more than the toss of my cape were right in calling me weak, all those esteemed fighters and elite guards, all the men who dared to come at me with the pinnacle of all their training and power wielded, still all fruitless against me. They are dead now...see for yourself..." Kakugari walked forward to the unmoving Hoji with his cloak held open.

_Damn_ Hoji thought. _My legs....aren't listening to me. Lazy bastards. Move! Kick! Do something! I'm no damn tree, I'm a man! I can't just stand in the forest like an exaggerated stump and expect good things to happen!!! I'm a man, dammit! What kind of man doesn't fight back!?_

_A dead man_ Torakaze said. _But of course, there is always another option...._ Hoji looked down to his gauntlet and was covered with darkness. Kakugari was walking past him with the cloak following at his side like an opened, black wing, taking Hoji into the void. Kakugari slid his foot forward and swung his cape in the final capturing movement, holding it across his whole body, embracing the cloak as it embraced him. He stood up and his grin sank. He glared and slowly turned his head over his shoulder.

"Sorry Hoji" Suichi apologized as he had saved his fight-crazed comrade.

"Don't be" Hoji said with a grin. "Turns out I'm a bit weak. Tch. I'm just not ready to die yet!" Suichi was stroking a finger across his exposed forearm, tracing thin blue lines that ran from his wrist up to his shoulder. "What're they?" Hoji asked.

"Knave!" Kakugari roared. **"You dare intrude on me!?"** Kakugari threw his cloak at Suichi just as the assassing finished his job. He slammed his palm to the ground and the blue lines all drained down into a wide circle which held int both Suichi and Hoji.

"_**Kohru Amatsumamori!!!"**_ At his incant, the ground sprung up and a dome of ice froze instantly over them, shielding them both from Kakugari's attack with an unliving, unsappable surface that his cloak cleanly slid off of and away from. Kakugari scoffed and drew his cloak back in while he prepared to wait for his prey to reemerge. "That was fun" Suichi said. "Now I'm tired...." Hoji was glaring at his gauntlet and working his fingers from within it, then scathed at his left hand with fingers that barely seemed to work. His whole body was numb but the glowing source of strength around his arm.

_Torakaze_ Hoji called. _I have a request for you, if you think you can fill it. I'm not losing. I'm not. Nothing is going to keep me from killing that bastard with my bare hands except this already apparent weakness. I need your help..._

_And what can I do?_ Torakaze asked.

_I have a name prepared_ Hoji said. _If I get it wrong do what you must, but for now I need as much strength as I can get. There's plenty on my arm, but I need it in my whole body._

_There is a name for that_ Torakaze said. _If I tell you, and you lose, we will both die, so you must not use this with lifeless forfeit in mind. Also, after this, your sword shall break and but incomplete for a full turn of the moon._

_Okay_ Hoji agreed. _Tell me so we can get it done...._The ice dome that protected them steamed in the humid air and rain and Kakugari charged it with his cloak clutched in his hand and balled around his knuckles. He punched into the shield and his fist was knocked back by its sheer solidity.

"Fie!" he exclaimed. "It's kido, ice grown of magic reinforced with a great barrier or magic yet within! What uncanny skill! This young man must be a powerful fighter indeed to know such great powers!" Then the ice broke. It cracked with a thud from within. Kakugari stepped away slowly as thud after thud hit on the inside of the shield. Then it shattered and Kakugari brought up his cloak to block. Jumping up over the shield he put up was Hoji, body full of life and vigor again and **covered with green tiger stripes.** The X on his forehead remained red and held the center of the stripes that pointed symmetrically to the middle of the cross. Hoji had a fist wound back and a wild grin on his face. He flew forward and punched with a loud, arrogant, powerful scoffing shout of

"**TCHYAAAAAHH!!!!"** Kakugari's nose broke and his weight was thrown full against his head. He fell backward and rolled backward until he hit a tree while Hoji landed, his stripes glowing in the dim light, his eyes flashing brighter than lightning. A Tiger reborn...

* * *

Shin stepped in, his scythe spinning fast over his head, his body leaned far to the right. He jerked his body up to the left and swung from behind his back going right. Netami's block was so powerful that his sword didn't budge, but Shin's force was such that he dragged Netami's feet through the soaked dirt in a full half-circle with his attack. Then, with a raging grunt, Shin leaned in and jabbed the blunt top of his weapon forward, hitting Netami square in his throat. Netami took the attack and retaliated immediately with a powerful, simple forward downstroke. Shin blocked the initial attack and slid back to block the resulting flurry of unseen cuts.

_This isn't going anywhere_ Shin thought. _Maybe it's time to start thinking..._ Netami held out his right palm as Shin blocked the invisible blades. Shin grimaced and swung his scythe hard through the air to kill the tiny blades all at once.

"**Makai Myaku!"** Netami shouted. A dark burst shot out from his hand. Shin swung his scythe into the ground beside him and hooked himself away from the attack in a slide. Netami's palm simply followed him, crackled with black static lightning, and fired again. Shin pushed against his scythe and dodged again. He held his scythe in front again and started running forward to attack. Netami fired another blast near Shin's feet and forced him to jump. As he went through the air Shin tucked his legs up and kicked just as he got in range. Netami jumped away and Shin swung his scythe to try and catch him. When he landed Shin pursued as Netami continued his retreat and subsequent blasts. Shin dodged the pulses fluidly and without thought, simply rushing in with his weapon in hand. Netami abandoned his plan and gripped his sword high at his side.

Shin and Netami both landed with a slide. Shin attacked first, throwing swing after swing with the slacked rotation of his wrist and the twirl of his scythe shaft between his rigid fingers while Netami batted away the blade and parried the weak attacks. As the scythe returned across Shin's body he grabbed it in both hands again and pressed forward with a full-body powered swing. Netami blocked and swung to Shin's exposed side. The blade was short but Shin felt the sting of the myriad weak cuts hitting him like a fierce gust of wind.

"Hmm" Shin growled. He didn't block this attack. He stepped through it to swing at Netami and made a cut across Netami's forearm, shallow but red and drawing blood. Shin turned the blade around with a quick a quick turn of his right hand, high on the shaft, and swung it one-handed with the power of speed and force increased by the rigid straightness of his arm along the shaft of the weapon. Netami's sword was hit to the side at Shin's attack. Shin let the scythe go loose in his palm and rotate around his index finger. Then, with the end of the shaft, he stabbed the butt into Netami's chest inaccurately and stepped in to power a forceful blunt stab that sent Netami stumbling back. Shin recovered quickly and spun around the shaft of his scythe smoothly, ending squared with Netami and his scythe in a natural stance.

"What kind of style do you practice?" Shin asked. Netami had no intention to answer. With his sword in one hand he immediately slashed and sent a wave of cutting power Shin's way. Shin held his scythe up with the blade in front of his face and spun it around rapidly for the length of the attack, blocking it flawlessly and ending in the same relaxed stance that he had just left, all within the flash of a bolt of lightning and before the blast of thunder even came blasting through the air. "No kind, eh? You just swing?"

"What does it matter?" Netami asked. "This sword needs no style. It suits me perfectly to just 'be swung around' as freely as I wish." Netami held his sword sideways before him, on display for Shin alone to see. "This is darkness, force, uncontrollable power that I have tamed and submitted to my demanding will."

"So you're a dick to your sword" Shin flatly said "and it does what you want? Your sword's spirit must be a little bitch."

"The spirit within this sword" Netami said "is not one to be reasoned with, nor one to be mastered. It and I have made the deal that its power shall remain unchecked and uncoordinated by me, and that I shall use it regardless, and that the union between our individual forms is to be forbidden at the expense of my life. This is the fullest release of my sword I can perform without losing my life to the torrential spiritual pressure that would release should I ever utter the chant for Bankai. This is the sword _**Murasame**_, great killer of men. Bloodstained demon. Slayer of the greatest....and of course you, Shin Kenpachi." Netami turned to tip of the blade onto Shin, who stood expressionless with Shikai in his hands.

"Whatever" Shin lowed. He wound his scythe back, flash-stepped in and swung hard into Netami's one-handed block. Netami let his sword drift away, stepped back and wound up an attack with his left hand. Shin retreated and Netami slashed the air. A powerful wave swept over the grass, visibly moving the blades and the rain that fell. Shin blocked it with his scythe and cut through it. The rest of the solid attack flew past him and smashed into the ground behind him.

"This power is absolute" Netami said. "It cuts anything and everything, regardless of what stands before me and ignoring the worth of the world. This is an unlimited power, all harnessed from the will of Murasame alone, leaving my reiatsu to myself and its to itself. It is the perfect harmony for me to work with. I only fight for myself, and it only fights for itself...."

_Shikei_ Shin called, _what is our relationship?_

_We fight_ Shikei answered. That was all. Shin grinned.

"My sword and I are perfect together" Shin said, spinning Shikei around and swiping a crescent wave into the ground that kicked up cut grass and the rain from the ground. **"We are essentially the same badass fighting beast!!! _WE_ are a true unstoppable force!!!"**

"I don't doubt you" Netami said "but what happens when unstoppable powers meet?"

"Something awesome" Shin answered. He took his scythe in hands again and rushed in. Their weapons and their eyes met. For a moment the men were identical, so deeply thrown into the darkness of the fighting that they forgot themselves and a mirror image glared orange eyed into the field of white and silence of Shin's eyes. Their mouths grinned wide, angrily, feverishly, and excited for blood. Their weapons parted and blood flew from both body. Shin was cut in many places, all but skin deep and nonthreatening. Netami had a gash across his chest that ran deeper.

But the blood was red. The rain was water. All that was clear. The darkness between these two fearsome men was not. But their blood was red and darkened the mud around them, even in the darkness of the rain, and when the lightning flashed it flashed impartial and white, showing all their cuts and all their rage for what it was truly...

* * *

Joushou Torautstu: Invincible Tiger Strike (_joushou_ also means 'rising'. Here I want it to be 'invincible' because Hoji is awesome)

Kohru Amatsumamori: Freeze Imperial Defense  
Murasame: Not Muramasa or Masamune. It means, roughly, 'Autumn Rain' describing the rain in the fall season that goes off and on harshly.


	92. 2 Fighting, only 2

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Jin could barely pick himself up. In the rain his clay-like flesh began to run from his thick arms and showed him the fearsome structure of his powerful muscles for brief moments. He sniffled like a child with dashed dreams as he grabbed mud from the ground to layer over his run-off skin and let his bangs slide down and frame his jawline. His swords were inside him again, their power sealed by his thick skin and substance but the voice that inhabited them was not yet silenced. Jin continued to pick up wads of mud to close his patched skin all over his arms and running shoulders while a constant hissing whine was in his ears. He ignored it and stuck sticks into his skin, even where it bled when he did so, ignoring all the pain as he did his best to fix himself.

"I can do it" he said under his breath. He repeated it, over and over, to drown out the noise of the rain and the hissing whine that came from his own mind. He rushed his hands to smooth down the mud and the dirt all over him body, never feeling even a cringe of pain, mixing nature with his blood and forming real flesh that grew fast into him and completed his patched body's tone of torn skin. His chant settled into a whisper which then went further down into a low mumbling until he wasn't speaking or thinking at all. He reached his long arms around to his wide back and covered himself with mud. Finding it too difficult to cover himself at such a stretched angle, Jin simply fell backwards and wallowed his back into the mud at the side of the creek in the forest. He could hear the water rushing and the rain filling it over his own breathing, and then his breathing stopped.

_I'm tired_ Jin thought. _I'm really sleepy suddenly...maybe it's bed time now. Good night, Rei. Good night, Death. Good night....good night..._

_No sleeping for you_ another voice said. Jin's eyes shot open and his chest inflated with a powerful gasp of air. _We won't.....**be the subject of your dreams anymore!!!**_ Jin was afraid, for a voice he had never heard was in his own head, canceling out the sounds of nature and replacing them with a high-pitched, painful whine. Jin grabbed his ears and grit his teeth in vain as the wretched madness within him started tearing through his mind. _You want to fight_ it said. _You want to kill! We all do! Stand up and deliver destruction. Find the briar patch in the woods and hack your way through it! What will a few pricks and scratches do after you've cleared your own way!? **Take it! Use your power! TEAR THROUGH YOUR DOUBTS!!!!**_

"I'm not afraid!" Jin shouted. "It doesn't hurt! It can't hurt me! Nothing can hurt meeee!!!"

_We can hurt you_ the voice said _and kill you. We will hurt you and kill you. We will hurt Death and kill him too!_

"Death?" Jin asked.

_**All of them**_ the voices confirmed. Jin started breathing through his teeth, gritting them so hard his gums began to hurt. His pupils started to shake rapidly and dilate. A fit of madness was quickening upon him, he could feel it welling up from the pit of his gut like a flood of blood rising up through his throat. That heat was his voice, which he could not hear, as it tore out in a blast of mute wind through his mouth and into the flashing sky.

His cry was heard as the howl of dark madness throughout the battling land, by Senshi and Horoshi who met after retreating from and following the noise respectively.

"Horoshi!" Senshi exclaimed. "You look a fright disheveled. I suppose your fight is then over?"

"No!" Horoshi growled, full of a youthful fire of absolute hatred. "He ran away! **That bastard ran away from me!!!**"

"Are there no men among these villainous fiends?" Senshi asked. "Perhaps Netami has found a civil monster in his dueling partner."

"RaaaaAAAGHH!!!" Horoshi shouted. "I'll kill him! **I'll drive my sword through his skull and kill him!!! GRAAAAAAHHH!!!"**

"Stop fast, you!" Senshi shouted. Horoshi was felled to his knees with a dull thud at his back. Senshi, who merely pointed him down, approached slowly from behind, and was stopped by the sudden swing of Horoshi's sword. It began to glow in the dark storm's cover from light and he broke the bind that Senshi had ordered onto him. He stood up, slowly, with a furious glow in his dark eyes. He swung his sword back to its position pointed in a slant down by his waist and ran off into the woods once more, in pursuit of Suichi. Senshi sighed and passed a hand over his bald scalp.

"What a foolish band" Senshi said. "Pity, and shame, that we must meet here..." Senshi turned to the forest where Horoshi had come from and sped out into the open road once again. He sensed the juvenile and uncontrolled powers of Jin far off in the woods where he'd left him and turned away from it. Then, on the horizon of clouds, Senshi spotted the apex of the most brutal energy. He saw beyond the rolling hills where the path led a mountainous form of darkness, and in a flash of lightning it disappeared leaving an open sky of rolling clouds for him to see.

"Netami...!" Senshi said in awe. "Is such a power worth fighting for? Is such a man truly worth all this strength and potential!? Netami, what do you do now, and what suffering are you willing to let pass into this world? Without you there is a hopeless city crying and a sacred seat forever empty! Do not throw so much away, Netami! Do not be a fool, you callous boy! **You fight Death! Do not do so with this much abandon!!!**" Thinking he'd somehow helped, Senshi looked to the distance and saw that the darkness no longer lingered.

_Just the storm then?_ Senshi thought. _Right, it seems now that I'm a bit of the fool here. Netami is no exceptional hand but he is a man of great power. His loss shall no come of this petty squabble, no. It shall take a war to kill that murderous man..._ Little did Senshi know that, in his arrogant and stylish cries to the dark heavens, he was indeed right and that Netami's duel was locked in the deadliest of terms with a man wielding death itself...

* * *

Hoji was a vision of power reborn. His body was full of health, his skin taught with muscles and coated in green, glowing stripes like a tiger. The arrogance on his face was a hundred fold more powerful and glaring. Even the lightning that flashed in the sky paled by comparison to his gleaming power. He posed with one arm forward, the fingers uncurled in a guard, and the other wound back at his side with a fist. His legs parted and slid on the grass. The winds bustled around him, not touching him but surrounding him in a shield of roaring ferocity. He leaned forward and raised an eyebrow up high to his fallen foe.

"Tch" he scoffed, his voice clear and loud above the winds around him. "You think you're tough? You think you've got the good deal here? You think that pansy cape can compare to my awesome natural powers!? You think you can beat the wind? Feh! **You can't touch the wind!!!**" Hoji switched his position with a step forward. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and threw them out. The wind exploded from his body and blasted into the trees around him. Kakugari stood up with his nose still bloody but repaired and glared Hoji down.

"What be this?" Kakugari asked. "I see the energies of yours not in the air, but contained within. A perfect harmony of control. Could it be....Bankai?"

"Uhhhh...." Hoji moaned, dumb-faced. "Torakaze, is this Bankai?"

_You wish it were!_ She said, on the border of laughing as her voice echoed in Hoji's head. _This is certainly not Bankai! Consider this an ascended form of your shikai instead, a sort of second-form that your sword may assume apart from the regular armor. I have merged our energies completely and contained them within your body. It is taxing, and very dangerous. Once this form is disengaged your body will suffer and your sword's blade will be broken. It may takes months to recuperate, but if you are willing to suffer through it all then there is no reason for me to stop you..._

"So this is my true shikai?" Hoji said. "Or something like that? Yeah. This is the perfected form of my sword! _**Jikai: Mokou Taifuu!!!**_" Kakugari snarled with a curious tilt of his head.

"True shikai?" he asked. "Then, it would seem, up until now you've only refused to use it? It's a pitiable attempt to irk out the last ounces of your power to defeat me. My power is to steal power! The more you have the more I shall take of you!" Kakugari threw the brim of his cloak and moved out of the way. Just as it crawled through the air at Hoji it reached the limit of its throw and returned elastically into its fuller form. Kakugari was on the move, having not hit anything, and sought cover.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He appeared from the winds and kicked the side of Kakugari's head as he fell back to the ground. The tall man was so jarred that he neglected to defend himself and was punched solidly in the gut. His own natural protective instincts gave his muscles the tension they needed to block the blow, but the force still blew him back. His feet skid across the ground and he hit his covered back to a tree that his cloak automatically began to sap the energy from. Hoji stood, a palpable arrogance about him, never static. He hopped on the balls of his feet and moved his shoulders with arms up. He was a restless tiger pawing at the air, playfully taunting and threatening his prey with jabs of his fists and quick breaths of air.

"That all you got?" Hoji demanded. He jumped up and did an ineffectual roundhouse kick in the air. Kakugari stood up from the tree and let his cloak gather into his hands. Hoji landed and did another kick, then a standing backflip, landing perfectly on his feet again. "Haa! You really think you got what it takes to tangle with me, buddy? You wanna fight the Tiger!? RAWR!!!"

"Silence, beastial brute!" Kakugari exclaimed as he threw his cloak. Hoji leaned away and let the cloak hand in the air beside him, latched already to a tree somewhere behind him. He just grinned while balancing on his toes. "I shall not be taunted by so haughty a man as you! What good shall that hubris do for you in a battle!?" Kakugari threw his cloak and snared Hoji between the two lengths. Hoji remained indifferent and smug. He stood with his side to his enemy and his arms down, still balanced effortlessly on his toes.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. Kakugari took that as a final snide comment and smashed his cloak together like two huge, beating wings. He thought Hoji had been ensnared and trapped but he felt no wealth of power flowing into him. He brought his cloak back to his body carefully and unfolded it, finding nothing within but the torn pieces of bark from the few trees he had hit falling to the wet grass.

_Impossible!_ Kakugari thought. _He was there! I saw him consumed by my cloak! He can't have-_

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed. Kakugari heard the voice from above. He looked up and saw the man sitting with his legs crossed in the air, **hovering above him, the winds all around him.** "I have become the wind. In merging with Torakaze I have perfected my control of wind to **become it!"** Hoji vanished outright and, accompanied by a sudden blast of air, appeared before Kakugari once more. He smirked and vanished again. It was no simple flash-stepping that he did. Kakugari could follow moves like those and motions faster than the foot could travel, and yet he could not see how Hoji was able to move so swiftly. His body simply stopped existing and then, with the wind, became whole again some distance away. It was beyond remarkable and stunned Kakugari senseless for just a short time.

That short time sealed his fate. Hoji came roaring in, full blast, his legs made of wind and his fist wound back at his side, and his attack began. He stomped his fee to the ground and grabbed Kakugari's thick wrist, pulling him into the punch he drove into his gut and up between his ribcage. **"JOU!!" **he shouted. With Kakugari stunned and doubled-over in pain Hoji made his next attack. He turned around and slammed backhand into his gut so powerful that he was blown back against the tree. **"SHOU!!!"** Kakugari growled and attempted to counter by throwing his cloak forward again. Hoji sidestepped the throw, and then the next, stepping through the cloak as wind and appearing right in front of Kakugari again. He started up a flurry of punches and kicks to the man's stomach on all sides, shouting out as he did "**ToraOU!!!"**

With that much of the attack through Hoji made a spinning roundhouse kick and sent Kakugari away and to the forest floor. His cloak flowed back to him as an amorphous trail through the air. He laid on his back with his cloak resting on the rain-soaked grass until Hoji ran over and punted him up into the air. He leaped behind his head and then appeared with his fists wound back as he fell over, catching him and pummeling him into the air with a barrage, merciless and brutal, of fists and kicks and sweeping strikes proclaimed with the roar of **"BOKUSATSU!!!"** Hoji's last attack was a full-bodied kick, placing his hands onto the ground and spiking his feet straight up like a wretched spear. Kakugari went airborne and unconscious. His cloak's life was emptied and it became nothing but a cape heavy with rain hanging off of his broad shoulders.

"Tchyaaah!" Hoji roared. He jumped up and spun forward, spiking the heel of his foot into Kakugari's gut, sending him back down to the ground with a crash and bounce. Hoji was already waiting down below and threw a tightly-wound backhand into Kakugari's side before rushing forward again. Kakugari bounced from a tree and into Hoji's thrown fist. **"KIBA!!!"** Hoji roared. Kakugari's jaw was tilted and his body thrown to the winds and sent above the trees where he finally was stirred back into waking.

_This is absurd!_ Kakugari thought. _Where did all this power come from!? What has this ravenous man unlocked within himself!? What powers does he truly have!?_ Hoji appeared yet again, steadying Kakugari's body with a stern kick to his back.

"**SHOOOOURRRRI!!!!"** Hoji roared, rolling his tongue to trill with a roaring excitement at the end of the latest word. He was brought up with an elbow wound up beside his head and prepared to strike. He was prepared, all but for one thing to finish the attack with his usual pomp and grace. He stalled and stuttered. "Uh...eh, uh, ada...ta.....um...."

_Ran out of words?_ Torakaze asked. Hoji's brow twinged in anger.

_I'm trying, dammit!_ He protested. _This is harder than I thought it'd be!_

_Did he run out of words?_ Kakugari wondered. After a moment of pause, as they both floated freely in the air, Hoji finally attacked with a loud and angered, wordless roar, spking his elbow down and into Kakugari's chest, breaking ribs with the sheer force of all the wind within him exploding out through his body's contact. Kakugari was thrown to the ground too fast for mud or dirt to kick up and he left a deep imprint of his body in a hole in the ground. He sunk down several feet and was unconscious, his very life crippled and his lungs crushed by the painful collapse of his ribs. The roots of the trees around him were exposed nearby, as well as the worms that tunneled and the sopping wet growth of life that led so far under the forest dirt. He coughed and lost conscious, thinking in finality how he could recover had he not been so arrogantly bested.

"Ha!" Hoji laughed. "**Ouda!** That's a good finisher! Hell, that was the best attack I've ever performed!!!"

_How was that disjointed mess of energy a single attack?_ Torakaze asked. _Really, Hoji darling. I trusted you to be swift with his power, not stupid._

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, still plentifully arrogant. "Up yours, bitch. At least we kicked his ass!"

"**UURRAAAAGH!!!!"** roared a wrathful voice through the trees. Hoji leaped down and aimed himself for the border of the forest. He saw a glowing white light quickly approaching him in the form of a sword, held by a face that flashed red-eyed with rage. **"I'LL KILL YOU!!!!"**

"How many were there again?" Hoji asked. "Three, right? Who screwed up!?" Hoji darted back to the original grounds of battle and stood before Suichi's resting, powerless body as young Horoshi dashed out of the woods. "Tch....great. More fight for me!" Hoji said with an angered curl of his fists. Suichi laid, lost in his mind and weak from his own fighting, in the shadow that Hoji cast as the lightning brightened the sky...

* * *

"**Makai Myaku!!!"** Netami aimed at a distant Shin.

"Useless effort!" The black pulse wave blasted through the air, tearing apart the drops of rain in its path, and Shin dodged it easily. He spun his scythe and rushed in with a shoulder-aimed slashing attack. He swung his scythe down hard and held it up as Netami leaned his shoulder away, dodging the attack, while stepping in with his sword. Shin blocked it but was hit by the strong wind of tiny cuts and slashes that hit at his side. He turned his scythe blade around and swung up, cleaving a mark across Netami's chest just before he could retreat in time. Shin brushed his nose with a thumb and returned his scythe to its original stance. Netami wiped his blood away from his chest and exchanged his sword to his left hand just as Shin came in.

Shin swung in deep to the right and Netami's sword blocked it with a steady wrist. Shin backed away, spun around and attacked to the right. Netami blocked that attack as well and pushed Shin away. Before he could counter Shin came in again with his scythe straight down. Netami hopped away to dodge and Shin drove the shaft of his scythe forward in a stab. It hit Netami in his chest and stunned him. Then Shin jerked his scythe up and hit Netami's chin. Netami finally countered with two strong slashes, one hitting the blade of Shin's scythe and the other intercepted by the upright shaft, both sending licking cuts through the air past Shin's defense.

"Doesn't hurt" Shin said. He pushed Netami's sword with the shaft of his scythe and hooked the blades together, swinging them both to the ground. "It doesn't hurt!!!" Netami held his right palm open and blasted a wordless pulse through Shin. It was a more dull pain that stopped just under his skin but it stopped him and stunned him nonetheless. Netami swung his sword up from the ground as Shin staggered back and he was hit by many hard and heavy air blades. Netami lowered his sword slowly as Shin regained his grounds and held his scythe up again, ignoring the shallow wounds on his exposed torso.

"Maybe" Netami began "you're just ignoring the pain because there's so much of it, hmm?"

"Hmmm, maybe" Shin said with a mocking hum of his own. "Maybe I'm just holding myself back to keep the fight going on as long as possible. Maybe you haven't seen my true power yet! **Or, maybe I'm already dead.**" Netami rushed in with a grin on his face. He swung his sword and rotated through the air, a corkscrew of blades following after him. Shin blocked the attack and subsequent wave of attacks as Netami rushed straight at him once more. He stabbed but was deflected by Shin's quick scythe movement. Netami smirked and grounded his feet. He left side was forward and his right arm was back and idle. He was intent on stabbing, and attempted rapidly only to be blocked and deflected by Shikei each time.

"You're fighting has dulled already" Netami said. "Do you not see all the places to counterattack me yet?" Shin was scowling. His defense wouldn't let itself up and he found nowhere to attack. He could feel himself being pushed back, inch by inch, with each attack he managed to block, and realized his sole route of offense. He blocked a stab, held the blade with the shaft of his scythe and pressed forward. "What? Another headbutt?" Netami said. Shin let his foot slip and kicked into Netami's leg, knocking him off balance. Shin quickly recovered, leaving Netami to flail as he found his footing on the wet grass again. Then a stabbing and intense pain. Shin had charged and swung his scythe blade into Netami. **The tip was in his gut, just deep enough to pierce the flesh and stab at the muscle.** Netami, the powerful being that he was, would not be so easily impaled and his hardened body was lifted up by Shin.

"That was pretty simple" Shin said. "I've got you right where I need you..." Shin ducked his head down, grabbed up high on the shaft of his scythe with both hands and took it in his right, swinging up over his head in a black arc of power, throwing Netami into the air. The shaft of Shikei came around and into Shin's left hand, gripped down low on the shaft. "To the sun above, and the clouds and the sky..." Shin began, "I declare...**Die!**" Shin swung up at Netami. Netami blocked with his sword in both hands and was moved through the air by Shin's attack. Utterly shocked at Shin's sudden powerful blow with only a single arm, Netami's offense was shattered and Shin's was revived with a brutal swiftness. Shin swung faster and faster, each swing of his scythe shooting an arc of light into the air, a pure wave of power, stopped by Netami's defending blade.

Shin kept Netami in the air, juggling him in a stalemate match of brute force, for longer than Netami could plan through. The dark warrior finally relented. Netami blocked an attack and quickly countered before the next attack came in. He let the power of Shin's swing catch him and throw him down to the ground. He landed on his chest and hit off the ground with enough force to bounce up. Shin kicked him in the chest where he landed and swung down, scraping a bloody wound across his side. Netami spun back down to the ground and landed on his back. Shin stomped on his neck where it met his chest with his scythe held high over his head.

"**To the Earth, I declare, Die!"** Shin swung down. Netami knew what he would do, where his target lie, and the obvious probability that his attack would be lethal. Netami blocked the side of his neck with the blade of his sword, holding the hilt and handguard near to his neck, only to breathe two whole breaths before Shin's scythe slowly tapped at his forehead. He looked up and saw Shin standing over him, on him with one foot, and the shaft of his scythe pointed to his forehead. He saw not Shin's face, nor did he see the absolute drain of emotion that was on it. Shin wore total apathy as a mask and looked out to the horizon of storms, ignoring the mist and the shroud of the rain, entranced by the distance. Netami growled and swung at him. Shin jumped away and landed at a safe, guarded distance, still looking out to the sky.

"Coward!" Netami shouted. "How can you pity me? How could you miss!? How dare you embarrass me with your-"

"The sun is my enemy" Shin replied, confusin Netami into silence. "Each day I march to it, trying to chase after it, only for the night to come and overtake the day. So then, before I sleep, I declare that the moon, who killed the sun, will be my new enemy, and I dream of killing it almost nightly. That sun always sets before I can reach it, and every day I plan to fight it to the death."

".....why?" Netami asked, wanting Shin to reach a plausible point. Shin turned back to Netami with a grin.

"The sun is the only thing" Shin explained "**that lies just out of my reach.** I can overtake everything in this world that walks on the ground and even those that fly in the sky near me. I am powerful, but the sun is always too distant. If I can kill the sun, **then I shall truly embody Death itself.**"

"You're talking utter madness" Netami said. He stood up straight and took his sword gripped in both hands at his shoulder level, aimed down at Shin. "I shall end that nonsensical spouting of yours! The legend of Shin Kenpachi will end as you whimper your final breaths and bleed the last of your wretched blood!" Shin scoffed.

"What legend?" Shin asked. "I'm **just a bastard with a sword.**" Shin flash-stepped forward. Netami's dark energies began to gather all around him. He was shrouded by a cloud of pure dark pressure and gathered it into his hands. His right hand left his sword and aimed open forward, exactly where Shin came out of the step, still rushing.

"**Makai"** Netami began. Shin swung with a powerful sweep to cut off the hand and Netami did not move. His arm drifted down and aimed at the ground and his fingers were spread out wide. **"_Afuru_"** A loud, dull blast shook the air. All the darkness left Netami's hand and entered the ground. Shin could feel it stirring. He could feel it moving, like a snake just beneath the sand where he stood. He jumped away from Netami and made a sudden run. Netami just smirked and swung his sword while pulling it back. Shin felt a dangerous presence coming from all sides at once. The blades of air from Netami's sword flew in the opposite direction, as if returning to the blade from the distant darkness itself. Shin spun and intercepted them, blocking furiously in mid-jump. When he landed he felt the ground give way and swell up under him. He flash-stepped backward and witnessed a pitch-black geyser form where he had stood, blasting pure pressure and force with the dirt sky-high.

"Hmph" Netami scoffed. "Find something real to kill..." Shin turned back to Netami and rushed in, side-stepping another geyser, and got up close with a vertical slash. Netami blocked and pushed away. Shin rolled away from another geyser, landing on top of yet another that he narrow dodged in the air. Then he was hit from below by a blast of pure black, a geyser that had followed his every movement and saw him in the air. It was a stabbing pain that flew through his whole body, electrocuting and numbing him completely. Shin fell to the ground flat on his face, only to be picked up by Netami's kick. Shin recovered enough to hold his scythe to guard. Netami had his sword held far back, his left hand and the whole weapon surrounded by a swirling darkness.

"_**Makaze!"**_ Netami lowed. He stepped his left leg forward, swung hard, and ended with his left arm around his chest and sword touching flat across his back. Shin could hear a hollow sound, a sound that was like something he heard in a dream, and he saw pure darkness attack him. **He saw and heard the sun die, and was blown away by Netami's fierce, body-rending attack.** Shin landed in a wet crater, his scythe beside him, his chest covered with blood, **his ribs exposed on the left side of his chest,** and his mouth full of painfully hot blood. He fell forward and stopped himself with a hand to Shikei's shaft. He took his scythe up and propped his body away from the ground to sit on his knees and suffer in the rain.

* * *

…_....I never had a goal_ Shin thought. _I was always chasing after the sun, always waiting to grasp the throat of the most powerful warrior and listen to his breath stop in my hand. I always wanted to experience the strength of a fight, but death had always been far from my mind. Perhaps the sun will never go out. I suppose some things in this life are beyond death, myself an obvious exclusion...._

_Am I the fool then?_ Shikei asked. Shin opened his eyes and found himself, unharmed yet unarmed, within the land of his inner spirit. He stood before his mountain of ruin as the sky moved at blinding speed overhead, and faced down the billowing body of Shikei, his inner soul. "Was I the fool to trust you to create your own power?"

"So I'm still not dead yet?" Shin asked. "Strange. Or perhaps, this is my Hell, to be sealed in eternal conflict with you over the life I led. Tell me then, will I have to fight barehanded or do you pity me enough to let me use a sword?"

"**A man like you _gets_ no pity!!! Pity is for the WEAK!!!"** Shin had never experienced such a rage before. He could feel it burning into his chest. "You shall stay here. You are far from dead. A man like you is something death will never accept."

".........that sounds like I'm immortal" Shin said.

"Any man can be immortal" Shikei said "if he does enough to be well known. But you, you are different. You are strong because you have forced yourself to be. You refused death to the point where now death itself will refuse you until you can prove yourself its better! **Have you done that!?**"

"I have not" Shin said plainly. "Shikei, do what you must. Keep me here if you must, take everything away if you must. It won't concern me how much I have to abandon to stay alive or how quickly I'll die if I'm left to myself. We are of the same mind and heart, and I know you won't disappoint me. **No part of me is weak...**"

"Indeed" Shikei said. It swung out its arm and formed from its billowing black cloak a scythe. Then, with the same motion of its other arm, it formed another, and stood with its torso of bone white and thick muscle exposed. The hood of black fires departed and sank behind its back, exploding into wide black wings, revealing its skull-face. "Where you embrace death in life, I shall teach of life in death. I leave this place to you then, Shin. **Do no disappoint me either...**" With that growl Shikei disappeared to claim Shin's body and conquer his foe with the true power of death. All Shin was left to do was approach the mountain of destruction and scratch his head.

"Wait" Shin began, "does he want me to do something here...? Should I......sort this pile?" The sky stopped in its place and the black sun of Shin's heart shone through. A dead sun, the dream of all his life, gave him the light in his soul...

* * *

Jikai: Mokou Taifuu = Next Release: Fierce Tiger Typhoon/Hurricane

Joushou Toraou Bokusatsu-Kiba Shouri Ouda= Invincible Tiger-King Beat-to-Death Fang Victory Hit (Long-ass name but it's awesome sounding in parts)  
Makai Afuru = Hell Overflow  
Makaze = Evil Wind (uses kanji for Makai, hell, and wind. Literally, a storm caused by the devil)


	93. The Offering of Life

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

A world of chains. Darkness and infinite straight lengths of metal links all stretching out into the impenetrable darkness, utterly random and uncountable. Some chains ran together towards a common center, the nexus of chains in this world, and met at that place. Suichi rested on a chain, his balance perfect for sitting and facing someone else to talk. What he faced was the inner spirit of his sword, Haganerensa, the chain of his mind, **a being covered and bound in chains from head to feet.**

"Huuuuu" it breathed. It's voice was low and devilish, unlike Suichi's tired and snide tone. He sat with his wounds real and dried blood on his lips, facing his demon.

"I may have messed up" Suichi said "but that's no reason to pull me away like this. What do you want?"

"......Huuuuuu" it breathed again. "Such rudeness. What would your parents think of this?"

"My parents" Suichi replied "whoever they may be, are dead now. What they think of me now is not my concern. More importantly, what about you? Where was your power when I needed it? Where was the promise of unlimited chains, reaching into the sky, to pull down the heavens around me? Where was your power when I fought?"

"Huuuuu" it began, "you are a simple man, Suichi. You should not need such power, should you? The discretion of an assassin, the silence and the darkness. You are a shadow, and must fight as thus. It is unfitting for you to focus so much of your energy now on combat rather than your natural talents as a formless shadow on the wall. Your blade is the only form I should take if you are truly capable of acting like a proper assassin! Or have you fallen? Into the depths of barbarism. Have you become a warrior without knowing it?"

".....I may have" Suichi said. The chains became loose suddenly. The being within them was lowered and fell into their still tight grips as they wrapped around his arms and legs and body again. His face was uncovered, hidden by the darkness.

"Huuuuuuu" it growled. "Then, the time may indeed come. Suichi, unfreeze your heart. Let me into it. Let the chains coil and protect it instead of that feeble, fragile ice!" It reached out a hand toward Suichi's chest but was stopped by a frosty barrier. Suichi looked down at it from the sleepless shadows of his face. Its hand and skin was patterned like different tapestries of black and white wrapped around each other in the shape of an arm, and its hand was the same, a cloth cover filled with moving, solid chains. Suichi stood up and stepped back.

"My heart is ice" Suichi said "for a very good reason."

"For fear's sake, huuuuuuh..." the being breathed. It rose up, pulling itself up by the chains that bound it, and stepped onto the very support that held it there, the same length of chain that Suichi was on. Suichi could see its face, a head wrapped in black and gray and bloodied, stained white with two eyes visible from beneath the surface. Two horrible, glaring, piercing eyes, **eyes that saw through his very soul.** "You are afraid of power!"

Suichi did not immediately respond. To debate with himself was just what he wanted himself not to do. He understood where he stood in the world of his sword, and he understood its position on the current events. Suichi turned with a sigh. "I am not afraid to wield power, but that power will wield me. Is that not a legitimate fear to have? To become lost to power?"

"Huuuuuu" it breathed again. "Look around you. There are those who have lost themselves to power that yet survive and continue to grow even stronger! Do you not wish to be like them?"

"No" Suichi answered. A brief time passed. Suichi did not, and would not, elaborate. There was nothing more to say, it seemed.

"Huuuuu" it growled. The chains tightened and slowly drew it back. "You coward. You always come here to fight me, but only if I'm bound by these chains of yours! Release me, damn you, and together we can achieve power! True strength!" Suichi watched as the chains of his will wrapped Haganerensa back up in his tight seal. They held him together with his legs tightly wrapped by ten coils of tight chains and then brought his arms across his chest in a cross pose as they wrapped ten times around his torso. Then twice around his neck to keep his head from moving. Then as he stared, his eyes like two static demon's eyes glowing from the depths of the darkest hell into Suichi's own eyes, the chains gathered and wrapped him in a tight cocoon of metal. There was no sound but a muted breathing as he drew his breath from the realm of darkness through the holes between the links of chains. Suichi turned and began walking away, balancing himself on the single chain.

"I've never fought for power before" Suichi said "and I don't intend to start. It's just not....my way." And so Suichi went to the deeper corners of his soul, retired from the fights outside for the solace and meditation that his deepest mind held. Still, he had a connection to the world in this state. He could still feel his wounds and the constant pain of them, as well as the frigid cold of the rain and the gusts of wind kicked up out of mystery. Suichi turned around and saw a wall of chains moving in, criss-crossing into a wide and chaotic net, to block the way he had just come again. He sighed and saw his breath.

"I hope Hoji gets enough common sense to move my body out of the rain" Suichi said. "I don't want to die of something like a cold after all this..."

Meanwhile, outside of Suichi's mind, Hoji was indeed fighting to keep his alive, exerting the last strains of energy he had in his body after the fight with Kakugari had nearly taken all of him to finish. He and Horoshi were caught in a deadly game, blocking each other's counters and building up both rage and energy with each unsuccessful attack. Hoji threw a punch, fast as wind, that Horoshi caught with the flat end of his glowing sword. Then Horoshi would swing and have his sword caught by Hoji's own hand. Hoji held his sword in a tight grip, the wind powering his hand to clutch without fear, and he kicked Horoshi with a low, knee-driven kick in his leg. Horoshi ignored the blow and drew his sword back, slicing Hoji's hand as he did.

"Tch!" Hoji exclaimed. "You won't get away with that, kid!" Hoji hopped one foot back and swung up a kick to Horoshi's side. The young fighter recovered his sword and blocked with the blade. Hoji's leg ignored the slicing power and simply drove the metal into Horoshi's side. Then, his leg drew back, bending at the knee, and delivered another flat kick straight to Horoshi's gut, right under his ribcage.

"Grrrhh!" Horoshi grunted. He stepped back and Hoji advanced.

"TCHYA!!" Hoji shouted. He punched Horoshi in the jaw and stunned him. Then a blow to the cheek and awoke him with anger. Then he stomped the ground, crouched low, and powered up a fist wound back and low. Before Horoshi could swing his sword to counter, or raise it in defense, Hoji shot up straight and full, like a sudden updraft of galing wind, with a powerful uppercut! Horoshi was carried by a blast of wind up over the trees, and when his body slowed at the peak of its arcing height, Hoji appeared and delivered a spinning kick that sent him even further away into the forest. Hoji landed with a crash and splash of the soaked ground, his energy so totally drained that he immediately fell on shaking legs to his knees.

_Am I done already!?_ Hoji thought. _Hey, Torakaze! Oi! This isn't over already, is it?_ A silence passed, though brief, and he heard in the distance the cry of an angered youth.

_It seems so_ Torakaze replied, equally exhausted by her voice. _You must escape now. Take your friend and run as fast as you can. The winds will be with you for a few steps or more, but then it will all turn in reverse. You must hurry!_

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He was hesitant to leave. Horoshi was still alive, and above that he was barely injured yet. "It's not over yet!" Hoji growled.

_You must go NOW!_ Torakaze demanded. Hoji growled, punched the ground and grabbed Suichi. With the unconscious man slung over his shoulders he picked a random direction and ran through the forest, weaving between the trees and running with a wind preceding him, making a path for him to follow that led out into the biggest gathering of open air and breezes it could find. When Horoshi returned and found both warriors gone, his sense left him and he swung the light off of his sword in a furious slash. The laser blast decimated a tree and blew it into burning pieces. The fires that spread were quickly extinguished by the rain and the moisture, but the shrapnel was still everywhere. Horoshi breathed vehemently, no longer a bright youth but a scorned and scowling fiend. He could only see death around him, the death of those two and the death of everyone who would dare get in his way.

No longer a boy, but Horoshi had turned to a dark and heartless beast just then....

* * *

Once out of the forest and onto the path, Hoji stopped and fell to his knees. He dropped Suichi in the mud and fell to his hands. His breathing was heavy and exhausted, as if lifeless and just reborn. Every breath he took was painful and hot and swelled his throat nearly to the point of closing. He gasped and tried to cool himself down by touching some cold mud to his throat. His breathing was deeper after than but the breaths still hurt. There was a stabbing pain deep in the pit of his body, at the bottom of his lungs with every great draw he took.

_Dammit!_ Hoji thought. _DAMMIT! It's not enough! It's not going to be enough! I can't just run! I can't just run!!! He'll follow me, and find me, and then where will I be!?_ Hoji pounded into the mud of the path and coughed in his difficult breathing. _Damn, damn, damn, damn damn damn! Damn! Damn! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!!!_

_Calm down _Torakaze said. _At least you got away long enough to catch your breath. Now keep going._

_I have to fight!_ Hoji thought. He heard Torakaze sigh, then he felt something leave him and reappear near him. All the energies that Torakaze had placed into his body were reconstituted into the hilt and unbroken handguard of a blade. But the blade was gone. Hoji took it from his fist and looked at it. There was nothing left to fight with at all. He couldn't even fit it in his sheathe if he had it, there was no blade to draw. Hoji glared at the broken sword for a moment, a cold and silent pass, then gripped it with a more firm resolve as the lightning struck in the sky.

"Fine" Hoji said. "Fine, then." He tucked the hilt carefully into the sash at his waist and tightened it to keep it in place. It was still raining, the sky was still a perpetual dark, and the state of things was just beginning to catch up to Hoji. "So it seems that I'm the only one to win so far....that holds our record at one win, one loss. If Jin wins, we'll come out on top. Otherwise, it's up to Shin to get us a solid tie....not that anyone's counting but me. I doubt Shin will lose. He's Shin. There's just no way he'll lose. If I know him, he's willing to be just as stupid as me....." Hoji turned around and picked Suichi back up. "Alright. Let's get the hell out of here and find Shin. At the very least, if he wins, we can hide nearby until that crazy kid goes away or dies...." So Hoji ran down the path, again full of vigor and life with a new resolve.

_I lost_ Hoji thought. _Even for all my effort, in the end, I took a challenge I couldn't complete. I lost. So I have to take this loss and run with it. I have to make something positive out of it. If I don't then all I can do is fret and moan and bitch about losing, and I don't want to be that sort of guy!_ Hoji hurried down the path, keeping himself keen and fully aware of his surroundings as much as possible. He sensed spiritual pressures all around, eight including himself, which told him that no one had died yet. Even though it was distant and vague, Shin's pressure was still there and told Hoji that he was still alive. Jin's was active too, though it seemed more defined and chaotic than usual. That meant he had to be close by. Hoji stopped in the road just long enough to try and sense Jin out and then, out of pure cosmic luck, turned to see the giant boy walk out of the forest with patches of thick mud covering his body and blood staining his fair skin.

"Jin!" Hoji exclaimed.

"Bald Death!" Jin replied. Hoji kicked Jin in the knee and ground his heel with a growling face. Once his rage died down, he looked up and Jin and motioned to Suichi on his back.

"He's done fighting" Hoji said. "Here." Jin took Suichi in his hands and held him against his shoulder.

"What about you?" Jin asked.

"Jin" Hoji began, "did you manage to win?" Jin looked away in shame. Hoji nodded, his face stern but without disappointment. "That's okay. I didn't either."

"So.....we all lost?" Jin said.

"Just a hitch in the plan" Hoji said. "As long as Shin wins, who cares what we did? This is his fight and we were just along for it, so let's go find him." Jin was recovered instantly. He smiled and nodded, allowing Hoji to leap up onto his shoulders for a free ride. "He's that way" Hoji said, pointing down the path and toward the rolling hills. Jin nodded and began running. All three of them went down the path together, toward the storm as it continued to move in. Hoji was focused forward, his sword still bladeless and safe in his sash at his waist. Jin was renewed in his charming happiness. That which had plagued him before, the earlier hopelessness of his loss at the hands of Senshi was gone, wiped away like a breeze through the fine dirt where his problems were all written down, and now they were gone.

_It'll be fine!_ Jin thought. _Death will triumph! No one can kill him! He's the strongest, he's the best! He won't lose ever! He's not weak or anything, he's really truly strong! We can all believe in him after all!!!_

_Damn you, Shin_ Hoji thought. _You know better than to lose. More is lying on the line of your fight that you know now. I don't want to have to see you dead again, lying on the edge of the border of life like you're the only one who matters! Don't lose, Shin. Don't even think about losing, not until we're all ready to die together!!!_

Yes, that seemed to be the main thought of the moment. It would all be alright as long as Shin won....

* * *

In the darkness, a man walked. Ignoring the absolute pressure of the surrounding nothingness, Netami walked right through the myriad league of darkness like it was nothing at all. Across the cut grass, the gouged earth, the soaked terrain all around. He ignored the stains of dirt on his socks and how worn his sandals had become from just the one fight, and he ignored how his body was so torn and cut from the fight. He ignored it all, holding sword tight in his left hand, ready to finish whatever ungodly thing still remained even after his power had been so explicitly exhibited. So Netami reached the crater where his Makaze attack had thrown Shin, **and he saw that Shin was gone, yet his scythe remained.** Shocked into terror by the revelation, Netami's pressure lifted on the surrounding area.

_How?__ He wondered. __How is this possible? What could have happened? He can't be alive at all! He just simply can't be!!!_

Suddenly, the darkness caught him and grabbed him and pulled him back. Netami felt his body in free-fall down an eternal, abyssal tunnel into pure, opaque darkness, yet he could still see the sky of rolling clouds up above. The darkness grabbed at him like an army of hands and arms reaching out, and dragged him deeper and further into the feeling of all-encompassing darkness that held at his back as an airless, lonesome sensation. It was sheer terror that clutched his heart, which he batted away in an instant with the swing of his sword. The blades he threw, invisible forces of pure power, hit into the compacted dirt and the scythe stuck in it, toppling it over and causing many tiny scars in the dirt to appear.

"Miss" Shin said. He was standing behind Netami, his ribs exposed from the flesh that was cut away and his body still covered in a fresh coat of blood, undried by the wet air and constant rain. "**You missed.**" Netami slowly started to turn. Shin stepped forward and threw a powerful punch to his head. His whole body spun, following after his jaw. The force was so great that his vision skipped a second and he could hear his own neck creak ominously as his head was forced to twist around. He landed and lost his balance, nearly falling over with the shadow of Shin looming over him, dark enough even to appear when there was no light in the storm clouds to give off such a menacing darkness. Shin grinned and wound back a leg. Netami leaped away just as Shin kicked the air and forced a solid piece of the ground up from just the powerful carrying wind that he had kicked. Shin glared his direction.

_His eyes_ Netami realized. _They're different._ Shin was upon him at once with a punch. Netami flash-stepped away and posed his sword up at his shoulder. _His eyes...**are black!**_ It was true. As Shikei had taken Shin's body, Shin's eyes were turned to pure pitch black, like a monster's eyes, unwatching, yet seeing everything around them. Netami swung his sword to throw a powerful, invisible wave of blades through the rain. Shikei watched them coming, able to see them plainly as arcs of light in the darkness, and he caught them. He simply hit them and they went away, **he killed them in motion.**

"Impossible!" Netami exclaimed. Shin was upon him yet again, both fists wound back and his legs straight back as he came out of his leaping flash-step.

"**Nothing escapes death**" Shikei said. He grabbed Netami's throat, so strong that Netami heard it creaking again, and then punched into Netami's hardened gut so forcefully that the impact nearly made him vomit. However, with the hand tight around his throat, the bile was stopped and held in the middle of his trachea, blocking his ability to breathe. "**Drown...**" Shikei said. Netami wound back his blade and jabbed the pommel into Shin's side. Shin was hit and blown away, but caught the ground and stopped immediately, slowly standing up as the wave of inertia passed over him. He stroked a hand from his chin up through his bangs and flicked away the rainwater soaking his black hair. Netami continued his attack, rushing in with his sword held up high and swung hard down. Shin stepped away from it and jabbed his hand, fingers straight, into Netami's cheek.

"Taaah!!!" Netami shouted. He stepped away and held his cheek, which felt like it was nearly pierced straight through, and looked back to follow Shin's movements. He was gone again, reappearing beside Netami with a fist in mid-punch. Netami dodged and swung his sword in counter. Shin stepped away from it and rapidly swung his hands to beat away the blades of power. "I can follow your movements after all!" Netami exclaimed. "You can't escape me. Your movements are just slow!" Netami began swinging with his left arm as fast as he could, throwing as many blades at Shin as he could to keep him back. Shin sighed and began to walk forward, beating the blades away with quick swings and apathetic reaches of his fists.

"**You do not fear death**" Shikei said. He grabbed a blade of energy and threw it back, halting Netami's rapid bladewave storm and throwing his sword to the side, still tight in his hand. "**Therefore, you cannot understand death**" Shikei continued. He grabbed another blade and threw it back. It hit Netami right in one of his fresher cuts, wrenching out blood into the rain that splashed against the already saturated grass. "**You cannot understand the absolution of death, of true sacrifice, of human nature if you cannot comprehend death itself.**"

"Who gave you permission to preach to me?" Netami lowed. He allowed Shin to approach, holding his sword down so the blade touched the ground. "Hahaha" Netami laughed in a low. He looked to the sky, away, and brushed his bangs apart from his orange eyes. "Death....I understand it well, even though I do not fear it. There is no point to fear death. It won't force me to live any more than I already do, and acknowledging death will not get in the way of what I choose to do at all! It's all pointless to try and make me see things 'your way', Shin Kenpachi. Death may be a great motivator for you, but to me, **death is just a result of fighting and war! Nothing else!**"

"**So then**" Shikei said, **"you do seem to understand a little..."** Shikei reached up and grabbed Netami's shoulder. His thumb pressed between the joint of the arm and the shoulder, and with a painful pop he separated bone from joint, dislocating Netami's shoulder and numbing his arm totally. He was forced to drop his blade, but he showed no fear or even pain. He just turned to Shin with a sneer and clutched his throat. He gripped hard, pressing at its back to feel his spine, hoping to hear it snap or begin to creak a little. Shikei grabbed Netami's arm and began to pull on it, hoping to simply rip it off now that it wasn't attached to the shoulder anymore. **"What if I ended this fight now? You can't fight without an arm, so what'd be the point of fighting until you die?" **Netami became instantly infuriated and picked Shin up in his rage by the throat. He threw him and grabbed his own arm. He fell to the ground and rested his knuckles on the flat of his blade. He pushed his shoulder into his arm while holding it straight, and shouted in pain as it popped itself back into place.

Shin took advantage of his posture and hit him with a flying knee to the face. Then, while Netami was sent head-first backwards into the mud, Shin flipped back to his feet and kicked up Murasame.

"**This is a true flying-sword attack"** he said. He juggled the blade with two kicks and then hopped up, kicking with both feet into the exact balance point of the blade. It flew straight forward, blade aimed at Netami, and nearly hit him. He dodged by flash-stepping away and tried to dash back at Shin.

"I'm not afraid to fight unarmed!" Netami exclaimed. **"Come at me!!!"** Netami heard something click, something metal, and turned to see Shin wielding his sword, aiming down the tip right at him, glaring hot searing death at him. Then, holding the sword in a draw across his chest, he dashed in and swung. Netami leaped away, just avoiding the blade, but not the following blast of pure energy that Shin released. The explosion hit Netami's wounded chest and blood flew out like rain drops, hitting Shin's hair and face as he grinned like a laughing skull. Netami landed on his feet, still in pain, and saw something dark flying at him. He leaned far back as his sword flew right over him. The blade was aimed down and cut the air, scraping a new wound across Netami's body as it flew. He grabbed it at the hilt just before it could be sent further away and stood up. Shin was already there, his right hand at the bottom of the hilt, right under Netami's left hand. Shin took his left hand, drawn up high, and hit an open-palm up high on the blunt edge of the sword. Netami used his right hand and held the bladed edge away, and a struggle ensued.

"**You preach about death so much!**" Netami growled. **"Why not die and experience the true terrors of it!?"**

"**Weakling"** Shikei lowed. **"To wield death, one must embrace it. All the pain and human weakness must be drained of the mind, so that one can face to his innermost fears, his darkness and his regrets, and LAUGH AT THEM!!!"** Shikei jumped up, pushed out with his arms and delivered a drop-kick into Netami's blade. With that force he was able to push the sword into Netami's body, a long and shallow slice that held Netami in place with a stillness of utter disbelief and rage, and he flew across the hills to the crater where his scythe still rested. Once he stopped he took a hand to his exposed, bloodless ribs and a billowing darkness began to build. From his palm a dark, deathly cloth appeared and covered the wound, spreading like a black fire across his body, **garbing him in material Death.** Shikei picked up the scythe, itself, the physical form of its power as a weapon, and spun it around until it vanished. With the energy returned to its body it held out both hands and summoned the scythe anew, no longer as a simple metal weapon, **but as a mass of scythe-shaped Death energy.**

"**Let me test your courage"** Shikei said, spinning the scythe around with an energy whoosh as it tore through the rain. **"Let me hear you _LAUGH IN THE FACE OF DEATH!!!!_**" Shin's face changed as Shikei took total control. No longer flesh and blood, but the rain that coated Shin's face had stained it black and white. The power of death was revealed as the skull that was Shin's body opened wide and laughed madly into the air. **_"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!!"_**

Netami was overcome with distraught rage. He pushed his sword out of his body and took a deep breath. His bleeding stopped, and all his wounds became black. The blood was stopped and his body was healed. Then, he began to laugh and flew through the air with sword pose over shoulder at Shikei.

"_**HAAHAAHAAHAAHAAAAAA!!!!!!"**_ The distance closed quicker than a flash of lightning. Then things became dark, black, voided. The clash of Death and Darkness stopped for a moment as the whole world lost itself to an unknown blackness.....


	94. The Sacrifice of Death

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

A moment in passing of Death is like an eternity to its beholder. For Shin, whose body Death was freely wielding, eternity had slipped by and by, again and again, in the boredom of his mind. He lay on an untouched pile of destruction and chaos that piled with each passing distance of countless time with more mud, or blood, or random splashes of rain far up at its peak, staring at the black-and-white clouds of his black-sun sky.

"Should I be training?" Shin wondered. "For that matter, will I ever get to leave? This hasn't really happened before, to my knowledge. Letting my alter-ego fight through the far of death for me is obviously a good thing if I just want to get out of this fight alive....but if Shikei manages to kill me, what will become of us? Will we separate and plummet into Hell? Or will we simply dissolve back into the flowing life of the world to become trees or grass or....what the hell ever....is that how it works?"

"Ahh, Shin Kenpachi!" a manly voice heralded. Shin sat up to the sound of a whoosh as a thick metal blade of dull edges and rusted color was swung slowly thorugh the air to be hoisted up onto dark-skinned shoulders. Mann Aulder, a grizzly phantom of the man that once was, ascended the mountain of rubble towards Shin, a black mask over his face with his black, pointed glasses over where his eyes were covered. "Thinking doesn't seem to suit you!"

"Mann" Shin said. "You're.....still dead." A brief silence passed. Shin looked away with a scoff. "I thought you were the kind of man who couldn't die, even if I killed you."

"WHAT WAS THAT, SHORTYYY!!!???" Mann bellowed. Shin turned back with his eyebrows raised and saw Mann adjust his glasses in front of his face and regain his composure. "Oi, Shin. You know why you're here, right?"

"I don't" Shin answered. "Why are _you_ here? Some kind of stupid vision quest?"

"It's hardly stupid!" Mann said, pointing the broad tip of his weapon at Shin. He didn't flinch and took his knuckles to the flat, rusty end, pushing it away. "This is about power! About fear and conquest. Shin Kenpachi, this is about your life!"

"It's hard to consider my life" Shin admitted "when all of my being seems to be composed of death. In essence, I'm not really living at all anymore. I'm just a moving mass of death, working its way through the realm of spirits and phantoms and monsters yet beyond, looking for a fight that I'll never want to stop."

"Hmm" Mann said. He swung his sword back onto his shoulder and stroked his chin. "I believe I see....Shin Kenpachi, what am I to you?"

"A dead guy" Shin answered, straight-faced and flat.

"**YOU SONOFABITCH!!!"** Mann roared. **"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!!"** He cleared his throat and cracked his knuckles. "I'm just a figment of your mind, a representation of your warrior's mentality, a symbol of your never-ending hunger for battle! Why have you chosen me, would you say?" Shin stayed silent and rose up from his sitting spot. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles, shaking his hands after. He stepped his right leg to the side and began stretching, keeping Mann waiting patiently as he prepared himself mentally and physically for a response.

"You were the first warrior" Shin said "I really bothered to _kill_. You weren't the first one I murdered, nor the first I bothered to understand. I've killed men who claimed to be stronger, liars and posers who brandished exaggerated swords they called 'Bankai' against me, just swords and nothing more, yet I killed them all. You, Mann, understood your sword, and forced me to understand mine. In essence, I see you as my equalizer. **My first step through a deadly threshold.**"

"Hmph" Mann grinned. "That's not bad. For an idiot, you can be pretty sharp!" Man turned his blade, still propped to his shoulder, at Shin and swung down hard. Shin jumped away as the rubble was smashed through and stepped on a metal pole protruding from the rock and the wood and the mountainous elements. "Will you run me or fight me, Shin Kenpachi? **Will you fight your fighting will!?**"

"A weapon..." Shin lowed. He reached down into the rubble and grabbed for whatever thick metal implement he could find. Meanwhile, Mann was rushing in, stomping across the mountain while climbing up. Each solid stomp he made sank him down a step or two, but each push of his legs that shifted the grounds shot him up those same lost feet. His black mask showed his broad and toothy grin, even through the blackness of its cloth, as his monstrous thick paddle trailed behind in his grip. Shin stuck his hands through the solid rubble and gripped the shaft of a long, metal thing he couldn't see. He pulled it up through the rock and debris and blocked Mann's attack with a long, solid-steel pole of black. Shin pressed against the blade, hopped forward and kicked Mann off his balance, forcing him to tumble down the mountain a distance until he regained his footing and slid down to the base.

"My will" Shin called "is to exist and fight. I will myself to bleach the world with my enemy's blood, to find the strong and become stronger than they. I have no allegience but to those with the same task, and we strive to surpass each other so that we may stand at the peak of the world together, looking from different mountaintops of bodies as the world around us floods with a cleansing deluge of suffering! I, my allies....those friends of mine all have the same goal: **We will kill our way to a perfect existence! We will ascend our way, through Shikai and Bankai and all of this world and the next, until **_**no one can stop us!!!!**_" Shin held up his pole. A straight and weightless thing of black, horizontal over his head.

"**I AM..."** Shin began, spinning the pole to a stop before his face, vertical, with two notches grown near its top. A lateral, unequal cross, **a black metal crucifix.** **"...A BLACK DEATH!!!!"** Shin spun the weapon yet more and stopped it again. The ends of each straight notch turned, each of them the same way, to make a manji with one long, shaft side. One of the upper arms, the left one from Mann's perspective as he gazed up at his enemy, lengthened yet more with the notch aiming down parallel to the shaft. Shin took the weapon and swung with both arms, the way he only knew how: like a scythe. That longest arm's notch angled out, and from it **a blade of pure, black energy connected to the shaft, then materialized into a mighty scythe blade with a blast!**

"_**KURO KOROSU!!!"**_ Shin's power was held in hand. A fiendish scythe with notches at all ends like a swastika cross. A right-facing, eternal symbol of power. He spun the weapon around with a single push and a balancing finger, its form weightless but deadly, and picked up a wind around him. His hair blew with it and a dark shadow consumed his face, his eyes glowing pure white and his teeth shining from the dark of his open, grinning mouth. **"Come on....."**

"Hahaha!" Mann laughed. "So this is your power, revealed at last, from the sea of your soul!? Another scythe!? Honestly, Shin Kenpachi, without a little variety you'll become **predictable!!!**" Mann charged up the mound, pushing past the broken, dirt-thin grains of rock, with his thick sword held at his right side with both arms. Shin disappeared, only to instantly reappear with his scythe blade in front of Mann's torso, the shaft leading behind him, and Shin holding it in an unflinching grip in his right arm, wound all the way across his chest, his torso torqued to the side and his right leg leading forward. With a sudden shout, Shin snapped all his body back into place, his right arm extended out with the shaft straight along his arm to his right, his chest forward his feet dug into the soft ground and turned sharply, and an arc of black light tracing Shin's blade's travel in the air followed by a red mist. Mann's legs fell forward, his torso flew back, and both landed at the same time, a sizeable distance from each other. Shin walked forward, seeing Mann's body not bleeding and his sword itself cut at an angle that made it dangerously sharp, for once. Mann coughed in amusement as Shin neared him with his mighty new scythe in hand and grabbed his pantleg before he passed.

"You are strong, Shin" Mann said "but don't let that mistake you for what _true_ power you seek. The power to understand, to journey, to discover, to know the beings of the world that possess such great power. Surly, something like this man, this Netami, can't be one of those beings. His strength is purely aesthetic. It's all sound and fury with no real meaning." Mann coughed and his cloth mask fell off. Shin looked down with blazing white eyes at his face, **starch-white skeleton as if ripped off from the head. The glasses stayed in place. **"Surely, you don't intend to seek and end to power....already?" With that, Mann turned to dust and was blown away by a building wind. Shin followed its travel until it was out of sight, all while his own world moved without his noticing. The swords of the graveyard in his soul started moving, and from beneath each stood up the ghastly, undead body, lacking a face for Shin to know, each of them holding up their own swords against him.

Shin sighed. "I understand 'strong'" Shin began, taking his weightless weapon into his hands. "And, among other things, I understand my 'power'. I am Death, merciless and uncaring. I slay, I take, I am ambiguous to strength...but that is not who Shin Kenpachi is. **He's too strong for Death to take! I, Shin; I, _Kenpachi_, will deny Death the pleasure of my death until the SUN ITSELF HAS DIED!!!!"** Shin charged into battle. Fast as light, silent as a shadow, he stood before the front line of men and chopped them all down to dust with a single one-handed swing. "You are weak" Shin said. "**Weak!**" The army continued to amass, bodies Shin didn't recognize, swords he had broken and felled, all souls reaching up through hell to take one final grip at Death's throat....

* * *

Shikei continued the fight physical, taking Shin's body and his own weapon, a constitution of his pure Death aura. The blackness billowed around him, a false skin of pure energy that sapped the life all around it. He stood on a barren patch of dirt, a hard rock crater where no life could ever grow again....and pressing into him was Netami from above, a descending Darkness with a vicious sword.

"I'll kill you!" Netami growled. He pushed back and was airborne. He swung his sword wildly with his left arm, each stroke of his blade blocked by the whirring energy swings of Shieki's scythe, all the blades produced after hitting the dry ground where rainwater gathered and kicking up splashes. **"I'll kill yooou!!!"**

"The obvious counter of Death" Shikei began "is Life. If both are in balance, everything is fine. Only when one is triumphant over the other shall change ever occur. Shikei swept his blade in one last block and then caught Netami's blade in his hand, stained pure, pitch black by rainwater. Netami hung in the air, elevated on the high of his rage alone, and struggled to reclaim his sword with vain jerks and pulls of his shoulder. "In an abundance of death, the weak die off but the strong live on! With an abundance of life the weak overpopulate and threaten control of the strong! In either case, new breeds are destined to be born. Those with or without, those lacking the common sense to pick a side and **kill everything around them!**" Shikei's energy gathered all into his hand, like a crackling ball of black lightning, and he used it in a wicked punch to Netami's gut.

"You" Shikei said, "are weak. **Weak.**" Shikei released his grip and Netami was thrown back by the hit. He stopped in the air, standing on a raindrop frozen in place, and kicked off of it with a powerful splash against his feet. He landed with a swing that Shikei dodged. He made a turning slash in his direction and was blocked with the energy scythe. Around like that they danced, Netami swinging with pure murder in his eyes and death out-stepping him, blocking and watching him tire out, while all the grass around them died and the rain sank down into the rounded rocky craters they made. Netami swung a powerful slash from over his head and let Shikei dodge to his right. His left palm was open, just above his right wrist that held his blade down.

"**Makai Myaku!!!"** Netami growled. Shikei poised his scythe and slashed into the invisible blast of energy. It exploded in the air between them, and Netami was forced back in a slide across the wet ground. _Impossible!!!_ he thought. Shikei was already attacking. He leaped up with scythe overhead and dove down with a powerful sweep through the grass. Netami flash-stepped backwards and gained ground, but he saw the terrible effect of Shikei's power. The grass died instantly, the dirt became stone-gray, and the whole bredth of the area became lifeless and dead. **The black cloth around Shin's body started to shorten, replaced by light-gray skin.**

"You understand, I take it?" Shikei asked. Netami backed away a step out of shock. **"The power of Death is no mystery! One cannot die if there is not Life to take! The power of Death _Steals the power of Life!!!_**" Shikei wound his scythe over his head, spinning it like a crackling black halo, and swung hard at Netami. Despite the distance, Netami's senses kicked up. His reflex blocked a massive slash that forced him back even further. His heels dug painfully through the ground, wet as it was, and Shikei flew in, hovering just above the ground like a shadow. He swung and forced Netami's sword away, then seemed to loom in quickly and grabbed Netami's face.

"There isn't much interesting about you" Shikei said. Through the dark gap between the fingers grasping his face, Netami could vaguely see the form of its face. But, he only saw a skull, **a frightening white skull and darkness holding him down.** "So you have strength. So you wield a strong sword. So the bodies you've destroyed and the lives you've taken could fill a hall as great as any king or emperor's! Do you understand any of it?" Netami grabbed Shikei's arm and tried to force himself away, but it was impossible. Death's grip was steel-strong, unmoving, completely static. **"Do you understand...Death?**" Netami freed himself with a swing of his sword. Shikei floated away, a black fire around his feet, and jumped over the wave of blades. Netami drew his sword to his shoulder, began swinging up in an arc, then repositioned the sword over his right shoulder.

"**MAKAZE!!!!"** He roared. He stabbed forward, and instantly a dark wind blew. A tunnel, straight and wide, encompassed Shin's body and vanished the black energy scythe. All his skin turned to blackened ash and was peeled away, and his bones were hacked so many times that they too became dust. The tunnel stretched on and decimated a hillside, burrowing a tunnel straight through a solid dirt wall before it was stopped. Netami stood in the clearing, alone at last, and fell to his knees. "Finally" he panted, "I've won. I _am_ strong. The strongest now! My title from now on is...Netami Kenpachi!"

"**Woe to the pitied and the merciless men"** echoed the booming voices of Shin and Shikei. **"Theirs are the lost souls in this sea of hatred. Let them be guided to dry land, and not to sink into an eternal darkness within their own minds and souls...."** Netami got up and turned around in a start. He searched the fields madly for Shin, for his energy, for his form in any sense. He only saw shadows and laughing skulls in the sky, clouds rolling like devils faces taunting him and chiding him for his poorest performance. Netami drew in a calming breath and stroked the long, silken black bangs away from his fire-orange eyes.

_It's nothing_ Netami thought. _It's nothing at all....._

"Your comfort is fake" Shikei said "if this is the extent to which you must calm yourself." Netami turned and saw, standing atop a pile, not of dirt and rock, but of bleeding bodies, the grim spectre cloaked all in black with no face but a skull. "It has been over, since before you bothered to react."

"**GO TO HELL!!!! MAKAZE!!!!" **Netami, in his rage, drew his up arms and swung down powerfully, but his sword was gone and his hands were both empty. He had to pause and look, slowly, at his hands to make sense of what happened. All logic left him, and the rain finally stopped.

"I have stopped this fight" Shikei declared "for the betterment of both parties. You, who have purpose to be strong, and my own, who is strong with no purpose, are not destined to clash this early. The world is still young! There are wars neither of you have yet discovered to be won! Great kings to dethrone and armies to destroy! And yet, beyond that, there is a world that nobody knows, a place of Gods and Devils, the land of Hollows awaits you!" Shikei announced, with a skeletal arm extended from his swallowing black cloak, **"In this fight, where death permeates the very land, THERE SHALL BE NO VICTORS!!!!!"** Netami's eyes sank into whiteness. Shock, rage, aggression, deppression; his body was crippled by emotion as he saw past his hands a **ground made of dead bodies everywhere.**

"No" Netami said. He held his head and pounded against the ground, rock hard like a mound of bones. "No! NO! **NOOOO!!!! STOP THIS MADNESS!!!!" **

"Death ceases for no one...." Shikei said.

In reality, Netami was frozen, trapped within his mind, a thick shroud of black energy blinding his eyes and binding his mouth shut. Shikei, still holding Shin's body, had released the final ounces of his own power, an effort that made the whole valley between rolling hills totally bare. "I will teach this to you one day, Shin. _**Naraku No Soko**_ is a kido capable of throwing any man into his greatest nightmare while still standing, but he cannot die. The moment his life is threatened, he will awaken with an elevated vigor, a daring resolve to kill ten time stronger than before! It is not your style....but you _will_ make use of it, I am certain." Shikei looked down in the dark storm light. The clouds finally rolled away and the rain had ceased. The skin that was scarred, slashed, scratched, cut and blasted away was back again but pale and gray in color.

"I have absorbed just enough reiatsu from the environment to keep you standing, but it is up to you to heal completely....." Shikei looked up to the sky as the first ray of sun broke, only to be quickly swallowed by the jaws of the clouds. "Shin Kenpachi, your resistance of death is neither a weakness nor a strength. To me, it simply is. But, as long as it is here, it is an obstacle to us both. You must force your way around death, Shin, or **power will evade you forever!**" Shikei walked from the battle, leaving Netami to suffer in the darkness of his own mind, sword half-drawn, in the middle of an open grassy plain......

* * *

Senshi sped through the forest and came upon the grizzly battlefield of broken trees, broken earth, and the crater wherein rested the damaged body of Kakugari. Standing out in the open with his sword still unsheathed was Horoshi. He breathed vehemently still, his sight cast into the shadows as they moved and mimicked, to him, the flight of the cowards who had shirked his powers so much.

_Unforgivable_ Horoshi thought. _Suichi, Baldy, whoever the rest of you are you're dead. You're all dead! I'll kill you all. I'll cut off your heads and rest them of pikes in the middle of the road! I'll throw your swords to hungry Hollows and sell what's left of you to Hollow hunters! I'll drain your blood and sell it as wine! I'll chop you into so many pieces that-_ Senshi could see, even feel, the rage in the young man and knocked him out with a punch to the back of the head. Horoshi fell, his rage quieted in unconsciousness and his sword finally out of his hand. Senshi walked to him and sheathed it for him, so that it wouldn't distract him if he woke up too soon, and then he heard the groans of pain from within the crater. He walked to its edge and saw Kakugari down below, eyes half-open and mouth coughing out water.

"What has happened?" Kakugari wondered.

"Need a hand, chum?" Senshi asked, extending his arm down. "Luckily, there is no comrade of such bulk that could fall whom I cannot pick back up!" Kakugari smiled and rose, as much as he could, his arm to be taken by Senshi's chivalrous act. Senshi hoisted Kakugari from his hole and dragged him out into the open, under the sun.

"It seems I've been given quite the thrashing!" Kakugari said, a smile on his face. "Senshi, you should have seen it. Ah, you would have loved to fight him. He was like an animal, leaping all around, his two golden gauntlets gleaming like the most regal of adornments, yet in his eyes the undying spirit of a warrior. He was a man, Senshi, one even _you_ may have admired!"

"Golden gauntlets, you say?" Senshi said. He stroked his mustache for a moment and pondered something in the corner of his mind. "I'm reminded of some battlefield tale I heard some time ago. A Golden Goddess, a woman shinigami who's power and renown earned her illustrious prestige within the court of the Seireitei long before it was its own separate city-state as it is now, but alas, her legend faded when her company left the world in some mysterious event."

"How did your fight go?" Kakugari asked.

"Not so well" Senshi said. "I won, but at a cost I fear I cannot pay. I fought not a man, but a beast within one. That Shin Kenpachi has taken no standards to surround himself with such strange beings. An assassin, an animal, a pure monster with an identity of nothing but murder! It defies my knowledge how so many strange men are born into this fascinating world of ours..."

"I have decided" Kakugari said. "Senshi, I'd like to become...a warrior. Would you assist me in seeing that my cloak....be made as a sword?"

"With training" Senshi said as he flexed his arms and chest, "anything is possible! You say you want a sword? I'll train with you so a sword is what you wield! Perhaps even a hammer or ax, or some longer thing like a polearm! We'll take that flimsy coat of yours and make it into a **MANLY WEAPON!!!**" Kakugari chuckled, weakly but happily with a toothy grin at Senshi's pompous declaration, but broke his vainglorious efforts at a simple question.

"What of Netami?" he asked. Senshi stopped and lowered himself.

"Let the man live or die" Senshi said. He looked to Horoshi's body, still out cold, and sighed. "He is a man of corruption. See what he has done to young Horoshi? You and I are above his wild and carefree antics, but the impressionable youth such as Horoshi are no match for that terrible charisma he posseses! He sways others to his own actions without care, and without true desire! He only manipulates becase he can! Whether he returns or not is up to him, but it will be without us either way. Kakugari, let us take this lad and retire to our proper court. The Tenshioni is not a place for villains anymore!!!"

"Well said, my friend!" Kakugari exclaimed. Senshi picked Horoshi up and slung him over his shoulder. He began to walk from the clearing but stopped and looked back to see that Kakugari hadn't moved yet.

"Oh I'm sorry" Senshi said. "You need a hand still, don't you?"

"Oh, that's uneccessary" Kakugari said. "I can recover fine alone. Just help me draw my sword and I-" Senshi picked him up and held him over his shoulders on his back. The obvious differences of height and weight didn't seem to matter to Senshi, who carried both men in a jog between the trees.

"Nonsense!" Senshi said. "Your training begins the moment it is decided, that's the warrior way! No one ever got stronger 'tomorrow', it all starts with 'today'! You won't be drawing that sword into a cloak until you've mastered it as a blade! Ahahahaha!!!"

"But is this truly alright?" Kakugari asked. "Not this weight you carry of mine, but of those others. They yet live, don't they? And Shin Kenpachi...what of him?" Senshi remained silent until they reached the road.

"That is out of our hands, my friend" Senshi replied at length. They kept it at that, simply, and ran off down the road for their homeland far away.....Meanwhile, those 'others', those that follow Shin in his cold and deadly shadow, finally arrived as the thunder rolled back and the gray blanket of clouds continued to recede. Jin crouched on top of a hill and looked down into the expanse. Far away he could see two beings, one still and the other moving, but at such distance and with such weakness from his fight he couldn't tell who was what. Nor could Hoji, and Suichi was unconscious still.

_It seems like they're both still alive, mostly_ Hoji thought. _There's an abundance of darkness over there....it's cold and abyssal, so it's obviously Shin, but then there's some blunt and impeding force as well. It's just as dark, just....it's formless. Could that be Netami?_

"I see something!" Jin exclaimed, pointing forward. Hoji stood on his arm in a crouch and peered ahead, shading his eyes with his hand. Indeed, some being was walking forward, and the arrogant young man that he was, Hoji sped off to investigate. "Wait, BalDeath! Where are you going?"

"You stay put!" Hoji shouted. He ran forward and slowed before he reached the person. Walking down from a low sloping hill was Shin, staggering forward with his arms numbly swinging at his sides. Hoji was speechless. He grinned immediately and started breathing, each breath hard and quick as if he were trying to start talking, but his throat was welled up with excited emotions.

_Ah, you glorious bastard of an ass of a man!!!_ Hoji thought, hoping he could reach Shin that way. _I knew you'd win, you! There's nothing in this world short of the damn sky and sun falling on you that could kill you! Hell, you'd cut the moon to pieces before it reach the height of the tallest mountain! Come here, you son of a bitch! On our way back I'm gonna pull a whole damn apple tree outta the ground for ya, you god damn bastard you!_ Shin walked to a stop right in front of Hoji. Finally, at the moment of decision, Hoji managed to part his lips and speak with his teeth grit. "Tch." he said. Shin looked up and grinned.

"Hmm" Shin chuckled back. Hoji stood with his fists on his hips and his feet shoulder-width apart, seeing how Shin would match him there. Shin fell forward into Hoji.

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed. "Take it easy, man. I'm glad we're both alive. Wait'll you hear about the guy I had to fight. But before that, I'm sure we all wanna hear about..." Hoji felt Shin's weight start to pressed against him and grabbed his comrade by the shoulders to keep him from falling flat over. "Hey Shin, you're freezing cold! I was under trees, so the rain didn't get to me as much, but man you're-" Suddenly, as Hoji's hands got a firmer grip on Shin's hard shoulders, the chill came over him and the hollow darkness emptied his throat of words and air. He gulped loudly and began to shiver.

_You're cold as.......**death.** _Hoji slowly took his hand from Shin's shoulder and looked at its color. First, under the light, it was black. Then it turned pure red, like ice-chilled wine. But it was still blood. Hoji grabbed Shin and pushed him away, seeing the peaceful grin he had just shown still frozen on his pale face and nothing, **nothing,** in his eyes. Hoji started to shake. His emotions compiled continuously, until he burst with a gasp of air and a roar of plea.

_**SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNN!!!!!!!**_

_**

* * *

**_

Kuro Korosu: Black Kill (Also a bit of a pun I tried. Ko-ro-su sounds sort of like co-ro-su, or cross. So, Black Cross works too.)  
Naraku No Soko: Abyss; literally, Bottom of Hell


	95. Ishin, the Past of a Mad Soldier 1

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

At the peak of the evening horizon, and in all 10 directions, and on all fronts the land was calm. The world of spirits, the wide and infinite afterlife, extended on forever from the Unohana, which seemed to be a focal point for all that world to start at for its many inhabitants. The wounded soldiers who still laid and recovered from past wounds, the orphaned children raised against the tragedies of war and to hone their gifts of power positively when they emerged, and all those who believed in the efforts the estate made saw this place as their unequivocal home, the only place in any war that truly mattered to them at all.

At it's epicenter was the womanly, gentle, caring, gracious, all-around sublime Rei Unohana, the Lady of the House of Unohana, a philanthropist across even the broadest spectrum separating shinigami from Hollows. The only being in the world who sought to understand the monsters rather than outright participate in their apparent genocide, Rei Unohana was renowned lands over as the foremost authority on the demons to anyone willing to listen to her. The fanatics and states built around their slaughter were opposed to her and those who supported her, and called many a thing by the regal authorities and sentenced to death for the conspiracies against a free agent of the Empire or State or Land in general...

And yet, over this pristine place with its pristine leader, the epitome of a polite and well-versed woman of high-status, there hung a cloud of darkness that never left. The powers that recently gathered left a lasting and powerful impression upon not just the manor but all of its land. Their names were known across many lands, at least one of them, and signals were sent out from word of mouth, passed through forests by rumor and legend, that an infamous man held quarter at the house of Unohana. Thus, the land became soon infested with wandering bandits in search of the regal abode to seek their immediate gratification of fortune in slaying the man, a famous shinigami with the renown of a bandit king. The specter of grim death, Shin Kenpachi, had a bounty on his head and an enormous weight to his name, and most everyone who lived willingly by the will of their steel sword knew it. Even Rei knew it, and still never denied that Shin did in fact lodge there.

However, he had not yet returned. That one day he left with Jin and hadn't come back in nearly a week. Becoming concerned as the caring woman she was, Rei called upon a one-man guard to go out and search the nearby forests for signs of them. Then left the man cloaked in wrappings, long and winding bands and bandages to hide all his true form layered underneath a short-sleeved shinigami's garb. He had barely left when he returned an hour later, guiding a tired and red-eyed Jin who carried on his back all three of his comrades. Being the only one still awake and able to talk, Jin was taken in immediately and healed personally by Rei. The other three were tended to by all of the staff of nurses and waiting girls and guarded by Natsumo and her small but strong company of warriors, including Katana Netami as well.

"These guys are inhuman, eh?" Katana said. "Are we sure they're even really shinigami? And not just....gods?"

"That's absurd" Natsumo said to chide him. "These are men who take up foolish lives. An assassin, an animal and a wayless fighter. There's nothing good about them....and yet, they manage to survive well enough to fight again, time after time and battle upon battle. Their scars compile rapidly and their bodies always seem to come back from the imbalanced brink of being totally broken....yet somehow...."

"They're a lot stronger than any of us" Katana said. "I mean, that's obvious just looking at them. Still, it's hard to believe they aren't already dead yet."

"...." Natsumo stared down at them, particularly at Hoji, who looked the better out of all of them but was still fast in a comatose of self-recovery. Suichi had a peaceful expression on his face to at least cover the wear and the terrible wounds that had to be healed. Shin, however, looked dead. There was no color to him but black and white after they cleaned his wounds, and he had amassed many more scars than he had left with. _Who did these men fight exactly?_ Natsumo wondered.

Back in a more tranquil area, in a room hidden off from the rest of the major estate that extended from Rei's personal manor, the graceful woman cleansed and healed Jin's much-damaged body by having him soak in a purification spring while she combined her aural healing properties with the water itself. Jin's body started to regenerate on its own, using the pure reiatsu of the water around him as his regrown skin and muscle.

"What happened, Jin?" Rei asked.

"We all fought different enemies" Jin explained, sounding innocent and somewhat bragging, "and in the end, Shin won! Cause he's amazing!"

"Is that so?" Rei said, responding to his obvious childish virtuoso to keep him comfortable. "Did you win your fight?"

"No" Jin said. "I tried really hard but.....well, after I took both my swords out, I don't remember everything that happened. I was fighting a man who could clone himself, so there were always two of him, and in the end he left and I was missing a lot of skin. But you know, I remembered something from a long time ago that you told me! About my body!" Rei's eyes went wide in shock. "You said my body was made out of 'pure and innocent creation' or earth, so I took a bunch of earth from the ground and patched myself up with it so I wouldn't be all hurt and in so much pain when I came back. Pretty smart of me, huh?" Despite him saying that, and Rei's best efforts, when he rose his arm out of the water to poke at his skull, his arm was missing large patches of skin that were barely grown over with a thin and transparent membrane of flesh. His body was still in such disrepair that Rei couldn't believe he was still alive.

"You poor boy" she said, unable to hold back her emotions. She took him by her arms around his neck and hugged him from behind. Jin leaned back a bit and went into the embrace, not knowing how to respond. "You've chosen such a dangerous life...I wish you hadn't. I wish you were still that boy, that clumsy and aloof young man with such an honest and humble heart....I wish I could have helped you better back then...."

"Rei" Jin said, startling her yet again by remembering her name. "Miss Rei, when did you ever fail at helping me?" Jin turned around in place and faced Rei, whose eyes were brimming with tears, and he smiled a wide and childish smile at her. "Miss Rei, you always do the right thing! You're a great person!" Rei slowly held her hand up next to her mouth, then had to bite her lip to keep from crying. She touched her forehead to Jin's shoulder and silently started sobbing into him while he looked at her, happy and clueless. "I just don't know of a time when you haven't helped me, Miss Rei!"

_No_ Rei thought, unable to talk. _Jin...it's a lie. I swear I tried my best, but I.....everything I tried ultimately failed you, and now look what I've done! _She leaned back and saw that the part of his body she had leaned against was one without skin, and the terrible sight of his bare muscle and the white of his jutting collar bone proved too much for her to handle. She stood up and turned around so that Jin wouldn't see the tears streaming from her eyes, then spoke very calmly and in as composed a manner as she could.

"Please stay in the bath until your skin has been fully healed. It will take some time, so I will have food brought to you, and feel free to sleep if you get tired....just don' sleep with your head below the water."

"Okay!" Jin said. "Miss Rei, will you come back later?" Rei started walking away, leaving Jin leaning with his arms out of the water and cradling his head against the hard ground, but before she left she did turn and nod with a pleasant and maidenly smile. Jin smiled back, turned and slid down deep into the water. Rei left the cave with a grim expression, one of great depression and anxiety, and at once she fell to her knees in an open hallway. Two waiting women rushed to her aid and caught her before she fell.

"Lady Unohana, are you alright?" one of the girls asked.

"I'm fine...." she answered. "Please, help me to my room, if you could. I am feeling slightly lightheaded at the moment."

"Of course, my Lady" the girl said. The two took Rei up in a two-person maiden carry and sped her to her room while Rei was swept in her own sorrow and held her hands up to her face to hide the shame of her tears and biting lip.

_Oh why!?_ She thought with a shout of her mind's voice. _Why must it have been!? Why him, and why me? Why must I have failed him!?...._ Her thoughts all culminated in a powerful guilt, and her mind trailed back to some day years ago, when she was younger and a more inquisitive mind about other things...back when things were right in the world she ventured to make better.....

* * *

In the past of a century or so, young and vibrantly maidenly Rei Unohana was tasked with tending the estate that her mother left to her in her death. Already a prodigy healer and adept at wielding her brilliantly strong sword, young Rei Unohana quickly rose to a seat of influence over the neighboring lands and gained a peaceful state of neutrality with the endless feudal warfare that went on throughout the world. She had turned the enormous research estate into one of shelter for all those who could no longer fight, or who had lost too much to fighting, or to those who had nearly lost it all and were alone. She took in everyone that came to her, no matter what their story was, and was regarded as a saint in a world of nothing but soldiers.

One day, a day she vividly remembers, an astute and regal looking family came to the manor, out of the way of their home, to talk of the business of having their son and only heir become a working part of the estate. The father was a stern man with a long beard that grayed at the sides and a thinning head of hair. Still, he looked powerful and threatening at most times. His wife was no less intimidating with a flat and mostly expressionless face that only stared forward and a voice just as stern as her husband's was. They sat in private in a guarded room to drink tea and discuss their business.

"Lady Unohana" began the man, "first I would like to extend a thank you for accepting to meet us here today."

"The pleasure is mine" Rei said, her voice soft and charming voice. "Please tell me, sir, what deal you have that you wish to be made with me."

"Yes, of course" the man said. "We have come across a young man, a soldier, stricken ill on the battlefield. He was brought to our care. We are among the many medical supervisors of the Seireitei, you understand, and we usually don't have the luxury of time to devote to each and every patient. But this man was....special. You see, he's incredibly tall, taller than anything I've ever seen before. He doesn't know his name or his age or any basic detail about his life. It's all quite baffling to us, honestly." Rei took a calming sip of her tea, and invited the two to do the same. The woman took a sip but the man did not. "Lady Unohana, we'd like you to take him under your care and do what you must. For the sake of the Seireitei, we must know what kind of illness he possesses that makes him forget everything about himself!"

"I shall certainly try my best" Rei said. "The research that I have made in recent strides with Hollows has translated surprisingly well into the treatment of beings from our world, particularly the enduring shinigami."

"That is reassuring" the man said. "Truly, you are the only person to be sought on such a matter." Rei took another sip before speaking.

"However" she began, "I am not so boastful as to take on any request and assure perfect results. Even I cannot perform miracles, and so, I shall honor your request to take this man in to study, but I cannot guarantee you the results that the Seireitei would seek."

"We can pay if we must" the man said. "The sooner we learn about it...well, then the sooner we can put this to rest." Rei took a brief moment of reflection to stare into the tea still in her cup. "If that would be a problem, I'd have no trouble paying it myself, right now if I must!"

"Is this important" Rei said "for the sake of helping others, or do you simply wish to know if this illness **can be used?**" The couple's eyes flashed with surprise. They retained their shock and sat perfectly still while Rei took a brief but delicate sip. "The Seireitei is losing the war on their main front, am I wrong? Any opportunity to use decommissioned soldiers for their advancement would be their top priority. To sap away all the strength left in fighters who have finished fighting....what a crude mission they have."

"Lady Unohana" the man began, "I am a patient man, but I must warn you against speaking ill of the Seireitei and its people. We do everything we can to ensure the safety, prosperity and unity of all the people under the sun!"

"So you must keep others down to do so?" Rei asked. The man was quickly shut up. "Don't take me for a fool, I humbly ask. **I know more about this war than even **_**you**_** do.** I will take this man in and examine him with the intention to enable him to lead a healthy and pleasant life outside of fighting war. Beyond that, I shall go no further. Even if the possibility would exist to maintain or potentially harvest this illness of his, you wouldn't know of it as I wouldn't act upon it."

"Now see here!" the man said, slamming his hands onto the table and pushing himself up with them. The guards just outside snapped to attention. "We are dignitaries and representatives of the Seireitei! Are you trying to extort us!?" Rei just stared coldly at him until his rage gave way to his tamed fear, and he slowly sat back down as Rei stood up to address him before leaving them outright.

"This is a house of charity" Rei said. "It has always been that way. Bring the man to me, if you may, and let our business be finished." Rei then bowed politely and left. Two guarded entered after her, soldiers from the war who had regained the will to fight as payment for their stay and care, to safely ensure the two got back to their own guarded transport outside the main gates without incident. The nobles were delivered into the custody of their personal Seireitei shinigami while leaving behind the man in question, resting inside a transport that looked like a huge portable shrine. It took ten men of great condition to move it into the manor. When they set it down, Rei went to open it and felt a terrifying force on the other side.

"Seal off this room!" she ordered. Her loyal guards moved out and latched every door and guarded every corner of the room. Rei had to cover her mouth and nose with the sleeve of her kimono as the reiatsu was like some strange, invisible miasma that clouded around the outside of the cart. Rei backed away and placed her free hand on the hilt of her sword. "Please, everyone, protect yourselves. Remember that this man has been taken from the war. Fighting may be all he knows." Three guards came up suddenly around her in a protective formation. The one furthest forward stepped up and opened the sealed carrier. The miasma thickened and started to pour out, a gaseous, manifested mass of pure, mad spirit pressure.

A low groaning came from within the shrine, and then out stepped an Earthen God. A man with rough and war-colored skin with a myriad of scars across his body and a long gash running horizontal across his forehead. All of him was a war-torn machine, sleek and beutifully crafted for the art of killing but so far worn that he was barely a full human anymore. He was indeed as tall as the man had described, over seven feet, at the very least! Around each wrist was a thick, metal shackle which a chain was attached to, and either chain was dragging behind him and into the interior of the shrine he stepped out of. The man lowed and glared down at the gathered people, centering his glare at Rei, the coldest and most pitying one out of the shinigami facing him, and he snapped.

He jerked his arms forward and swung the chains at the guards. Two of them blocked but couldn't resist the force of power that the chains hit them with. They were pushed back as the chains continued to whip into them, right into the wall far behind them.

"Get away, Lady Unohana!" the guard at her front said. "This guy's too strong to peacefully subdue!"

"Is he?" Rei said. The man dashed forward with his sword drawn up, the intent to slash and attack in his motion. The tall, monstrous man just looked down with a glowering grin and wound his arm up across his body, too fast to follow, and smashed the blunt metal shackle on his wrist into the guard's side. The poor soldier's shoulder was broken and his hand became completely limp as he was thrown through the wall that he hit. Now it was the beast and Rei, the two other guards too far intimidated by his fearsome strength to approach. Seeing no recourse, Rei drew her sword and held I over her head.

"Please, do not resist it" she said. Her sword began to slowly shatter and dissolve into a wide-spreading mist that sparkled and shone in the air. "I will not harm you."

_**!!!!!!**_ roared the monstrous man. He grabbed the chain of his left hand from off the ground and yanked it forward. It coiled and flew out from within the shrine until, at its end, a sword emerged and he grabbed it by its handle. A vicious curved butchering blade it was, almost as wide as Rei's own body and shining with an untouched and perfect condition, as if it had never seen a battle as hard-fought as its owner's body. He rose his arm up to strike and projected all his implicit evil, all his rage and intent of murder, out powerfully on Rei whose sword was all mist. She gathered it together in a bright, shining light and blocked his blade with her holy sword. The man looked down in confusion as a woman blocked his broad and powerful blade with only a shining stick of a sword.

"Cease fighting" Rei said. "There is no war to be fought here. You are only wasting your energy." The man furiously drew his sword away and stomped back. Rei positioned her blade down at her hip and flashed forward. The man swung to counter and froze after his attack had fully wound forward. Rei stood at the top of his shrine encasement with no sword in her hand and turned back to look at the man again. "Such unguided rage will get you nowhere now. To live without your killing intent is the first step towards leaving a war. If I must, I will help you learn it." Rei reached out and took the hilt of her sword. The blade had **half-sunken into his head and was cleansing his very mind.** The deft stroke through his throat blessed the peace within him and removed the lust and fear of bloodshed and death. The gash on his forehead also quickly healed and closed up, completely gone, and his eyes went white. He fell with a thud to his knees and a smash onto his face, unconscious and defeated by Rei's own passive healing powers. The elegant young woman then raced to find the soldier that had been punishingly hit by the raging man.

"Are you alright?" Rei asked the crippled man.

"Urgh" he groaned. "Ah, I think I'll be okay....sorry, Lady Unohana. I failed in protecting you....and myself."

"The only thing that matters to me" Rei said "is that you are alive, and you _can_ be healed in time."

"Right" the man said. "That _is_ good. Please, let me take my time healing, then. There's no longer a rush for me to be back in fighting condition."

"I'm glad you can say that" Rei said. She turned back and watched the other two guards begin to subdue the maniac man with strong kido barriers forming one over the other. "It's never easy to admit that a war is over for a soldier...."

* * *

Some time later, when the mad young man was subdued and contained within a kido barrier room, Rei returned to begin her procedures on him, despite the hot protest of her more worried guards.

"Lady Unohana" a rough ex-soldier began, showing the utmost respect for her, "I understand your position. Please, if you must treat him, do not do it alone! Take a few of us in there with you in case he snaps and attacks you again!"

"I will not" Rei said in a polite yet stern way.

"That's stupid!" the man said, lacking all respect entirely.

"Are you insinuating right now" Rei began "that I cannot use my sword to defend myself?" The soldier froze up. Of course she could, he knew, and she wouldn't be afraid to demonstrate her skills either. "I will be fine. This man's mind is in a dangerous state. His constant presence in a never-ending war has left his mind and body as direct reflections of one another. He is a creature reduced from humanity for his past deeds, a man who has lost his mind to his swords. However, I have already observed that he is not beyond hope."

"What do you intend to do?" the soldier asked.

"I will keep him in a stasis" she said "and attempt to strengthen his natural aura over his sword's aura to balance his mind. Right now, the aura of his sword's is something that I haven't been able to decipher. Its effects have fluctuated the natural emanations of his body into something chaotic and mixed, but among all the different feelings, Earth seems to be the strongest of his body. I will attempt to amplify that aural pattern in the hopes that it will take hold over the chaos and then I will work on sealing the constant projection of the swords."

"And he won't be mobile for any of this?" the man asked finally. Rei opened the door to the room and a dull, green light shone out from the sheer strength of the kido barriers. Rei turned back and smiled at the man before moving away, leaving his final concern unaddressed in as maidenly a way as possible. "I feel....like I've failed somehow" the man admitted.

Inside the room, Rei entered the barriers unaffected, and walked up to the man who was laying on his back propped up on the widest and longest table that could seat him comfortably. He was grinning and staring wide-eyed up at the ceiling.

"Man" Rei asked, "you can not move, can you?"

"....No" he said in mad glee. "I suppose you wouldn't _want_ me to move, would you?"

"Your time of fighting has come to an end" Rei said. "I am going to attempt to reorganize your chaotic spiritual aura and manipulate your body into a direct reflection of it. As your strongest affinity is Earth, that is the element that I shall focus on."

"I don't know what you're talking about" the man said with a dry laugh. "There's never an end to fighting, for anyone! Every day becomes a struggle for one's life in some time. Every day is a push through time, through hardship, through pain! If you can't fight off your adversaries then you'll be killed in cold blood by your own family or brothers-in-arms!"

"Do not think about war anymore" Rei said. "This is a place free of war. There will be none of it here."

"I've never heard anything so stupid....." the man said. "**War is everywhere. It is **_**inside of us!**_" Rei closed her eyes and started a meditative breathing.

"Stay silent" Rei instructed "and breathe." The man, having no recourse, did so and breathed with Rei. An hour of their breathing became like a minute to him, and he opened his eyes in deep relaxation. "What is your name?" Rei asked.

"....Ishin" he said. "That's the only name I know anymore...."

"You are a man with the dignity of a soldier, aren't you?" Rei asked.

"......No" Ishin admitted. "Honor has never stopped me from fighting. That is why my body is covered with scars."

"Look down at your body now" Rei said. "There are no more scars." Ishin was able to raise his head up just enough to look down at his exposed body. All the scars and marks, all of them still shaded like blood and deep enough to scrape at his muscles beneath his skin, they were gone, all healed and his skin perfectly restored. Ishin's mind registered a blank. He had no emotions that he knew of to express what he felt, a serene yet anxious feeling of sudden and uncomfortable peace overflowing him. "For the day" Rei said "I'd like you to rest. I will have food brought to you, and then tomorrow we will begin adjusting your aura." With that Rei began to leave, with all she could do then done.

"Wait" Ishin said, weakly calling out to her. "My swords....where are they? You haven't destroyed them, have you?"

"I would not do something that dangerous" Rei said. "Your swords are safe and sealed in another place. It'd be best for you not to take them up until my healing processes have been completed. Ishin's worry started to come back. He felt defenseless and afraid without his swords nearby, and Rei understood his emotions from across the room. "When all is said and done, you will be able to wield your swords without them wielding you. That is but one goal that I will accomplish."

"Can you?" Ishin asked. Rei just smiled and nodded before leaving the room. Ishin's worry was absolved, for then, with the promise of revelation that Rei had given to him. Even with the best intentions to set his mind at ease, Rei still felt uncomfortable. She left his room and went straight to one across the estate as quickly as possible, the sealed room that held powerful barriers where his swords were kept, one at each opposite wall. Rei took her position between them and began her meditation to channel the spirit of Ishin's blades.

_Where are you?_ She asked, hoping the swords would hear her call. _Tell me, what is your name, and why do you dwell in this state all the time?_ She was not answered, but she was unwilling to stop and tried again. _I wish to speak to you on equal terms. Will you not meet me?_ Again, only silence. Rei drew out her sword and held it straight up in her lap, using it as a beacon and a conductor to the dual-blades spiritual pressure.

_Are you there?_ She asked. _Can you hear me?_ Suddenly, from every corner of the room, and echoing throughout her own mind, she heard a blowing wind as it escaped from some unseen, dark cave. She opened her eyes to the world of the sword's spirit and saw herself standing at the entrance of a great, black cave burrowed out of the skyline itself. Rei took a single step forward into the darkness with a small aura of light surrounding her, and began her journey into its depths.

"Who are you?" she inquired. Suddenly the darkness intensified and she looked behind her to see the mouth of the cave start to close. She leaped out and onto an invisible ground of blue sky just before the jaws were closed completely and the skyline was restored. Rei stood up and looked off in all directions, feeling innumerable amount of individual presences. "Tell me.....what is your name!?"

"My name" she finally heard in reply "is not your concern." She turned around with a start and saw herself, standing opposite her with eyes closed and cast to the ground. Rei understood the illusion at play but couldn't see past it. Then, her double opened its eyes, and from the darkness where eyes were absent **black insects began crawling out. As its mouth curled up in a grin a thick miasma of poison started hissing out. Everything about this spiritual creature seemed evil and foreboding as a wave of purely undirected and unguidable pressure blasted Rei out of her meditative state and back to reality.**

Rei gasped and fell back onto her hand. She held her sword hilt up to her head to quell the great migraine that was sweeping through her head, and she looked at each sword in turn to see their reflective surfaces staring back at her.

_You can't reach me_ a hissing voice echoed into her head _but I have already reached you!!!_ Rei felt danger all around her. Paranoia built up within her. Her first experience of the Madness Aura forced her to make herself unconscious by stabbing her own healing blade into her stomach, forcing her to pass out from its effects of over-healing. The guards outside came in to retrieve her some time later and took her to her room. The process of purification would continue regardless, but the swords were taken to an even deeper section of the estate where they could reach no one at all.

* * *

This is but the first part of the history of when Ishin became the childish and Earth-embodied Jin. The whole of the tale will be continued another time...


	96. Ishin, the Past of a Mad Soldier 2

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

Another day of healing went by. Neither Rei nor Ishin spoke through the cleaning ritual. The calmness in him overpowered his will to speak out against the process. His own mind's rebellion to remain as it was had been sedated by the calming sensation that Rei's powers had flooded him with. He had no resentment at all, just placid calmness. It felt to him like floating on the surface of a lake all the time, without a care at all, but some animistic sense in him demanded his mind to think of that lake to be one entirely of blood. He was still mentally unstable, and shifted between comfortable sighs and low, mad laughter.

Rei did not speak, not because she had nothing to say, but because her mind had become focused solely on the demonic aura of the swords that had done such a thing to an otherwise innocent young man. _It is his swords to blame for his bloodlust_ Rei thought. _If I am to return life to him, a life that is worth living even to a militant soldier like this, I must find a way to drain his swords of their inherent madness._ Each day, when her lengthy ritual of cleansing had been completed, she would leave without a word and Ishin would lay still on his bed for another long day of sleep and eating to keep his body in recovery. Then Rei would eat some slight and meager meal if only to stop her waiting women from worrying over her health before going into the room where the swords held a powerful, oppressing aura.

Her ritual within that room had changed since her initial failure. The second day she had the room sealed off and instructed her guards to not try and retrieve her at all. Then, from within, a powerfully dense mist dampened the light and clouded the paper walls, making it impossible to spy from the outside while she worked.

"What's this?" a guard asked, mentioning the mist in the room. "Is this some kind of kido? I didn't sense anything happen yet."

"Lady Unohana is greatly studied in kido" another guard said "and spiritual energy in general. If she wanted to hide whatever she's doing, then she probably could with very little effort."

"She's a powerful young woman" the guard said. "It gets hard to believe that her mother was even _more_ powerful than her." After three hours the guards became restless. They fought off the urge to open the door and check on their gracious benefactor and remained at guard, turning away everyone that passed through the hall on business or in search of the Lady for something. One young woman refused to be turned away, a noisy blond-haired girl who carried her sword in plain sight at her hip.

"I'm telling you" a younger Telly exclaimed, "it's a _super emergency!!!_"

"If the manor isn't burning down" the guard said with a gruff voice "then it's a super pile of **CRAP!**"

"Don't you mess with me!" Telly shouted. "I may look weak, but my kido could kick your kido's ass!"

"Ooo!" one of the guards began. "That girl's calling you out, man! She must mean business!" The guard's eyebrow was beginning to twitch in anger. He cracked a grin and tried to smother his building anger with a duteous and pleasant sense of guarding.

"Listen, kid" he said, leaning toward Telly with a wide smile, "I'm tired. It's been too long since the Lady went in there, and none of us have any idea what we're supposed to do aside from standing here and waiting for her to stumble out in whatever state she happens to be in! If you have any kind of suggestion as to what we can do to get her out faster for your 'super emergency', then by all means, tell me!"

"You can stop patronizing me" Telly said with puffed up cheeks. She huffed and turned away with a pout. "Just tell the Lady that she has important guests waiting in her sitting room, and that they are directly related to **that boy she's taking care of, Ishin.**" The guard stood erect and nodded. Telly bowed and left, still arrogantly miffed at her poor treatment for seemingly no reason.

"Family, perhaps?" one of the guards said after Telly had completely gone.

"If a man like that can have family" the head guard said. "I shudder to think what such a meeting will produce...." An hour later the room became brighter as the mist was drawn away. A few moments later, Rei came out of the room in a weakened state and nearly fell over. The guard at the door caught her and helped her to her feet. "My Lady, are you alright!?"

"I am fine" Rei said. "Do not be so concerned. I won't lose....to a sword." The guard heard neither grace nor femininity in her voice. What he heard was the low voice of a warrior talking, the swearing of determination to win in whatever war she seemed to fighting inside that room.

"My Lady" the guard began, "I know this is a poor time to bring this up but, you have company. Relatives of Ishin, it seems. They've been waiting for some time in the main sitting room. Should we have them stay and meet with you tomorrow, or...?"

"No" Rei said to the man's stall. "I shall meet with them now. Please, I am weak. Help me there at least."

"Of course, My Lady" the guard said. He and his company of men moved out, assisting their graceful but weakened benefactor through the halls to her esteemed and quaint sitting room where a woman was preparing another bowl of tea for the patient guests. There were three people in the room waiting for Rei, commoners in plain, drab brown garments. One older man, who was thin and had a poor complexion from working too long in the sun. He was bald but had a goatee of rough, silver-gray hair around his mouth. Beside him was a woman who was slightly younger, had her loose and coarse hair up in a bun atop her head and kept her eyes closed in meditation. She had wrinkles at the edges of her mouth and under her eyes, and looked underfed. Then beside her was a much younger woman with fair skin and no signs of poor feeding or improper exposure. She was a dainty girl and a healthy one, but she looked the most demure out of all three in her expression.

"Excuse my intrusion" the guard said as he opened the door with his leg. He held Rei up with both arms and moved her into the room as her legs hardly moved to keep up with him. "I present to you the Lady, Rei Unohana, who expresses her apologies for making you wait so long."

"It's nothing" the man said, breaking a smile just to see her. The guard rested Rei down on a seat cushion adjacent to her company so she could see all of them.

"Lady Unohana" the guard began "has been kept at length due to problems concerning the healing of a recently inducted young man from a warzone. She's been exerting extraneous amounts of energy lately, and therefore is in a less than receptive state."

"I will be fine" Rei said. "My only excuse was that I had not anticipated company during my work."

"It is certainly understandable" the man once again said. "We did not mind waiting for you, either, so please do not think yourself of being troublesome. Thank you for allowing us in." The man and his family bowed in gratitude. Rei bowed as well but strained herself to rise back up into a proper sitting position. The woman made a bowl of tea for Rei, who graciously accepted it and drank it all in one gulp and slurp. With that she felt at least energetic enough to keep herself sitting upright on her own, and she dismissed the guards who left to stand at attention outside as always.

"Well" one of them said outside the room in a hush "at least it's in a different part of the manor."

"Yeah" the main guard said. "You know, this part of the manor smells like grass, fresh and spring-like."

"We're close to the garden, is why" another guard said. They all nodded with agreement and then went back to statuesque silence, standing guard with their arms crossed to keep even idle conversation out....

* * *

The family sat with Rei and the woman who made them their tea, a cup for each of them. Another woman from the corner of the room brought them sweets to eat which the family graciously accepted and promptly ate. Rei could tell immediately that they had only been able to come to her manor by the sheer luck of passing unharmed through the forests that surrounded her estate. They were of no royal importance or even relevance to the nobles of Seireitei. These were common folk who came on a self-imposed errand, people who Rei took to heart at any passing.

"I've been told" Rei began "that you have some connection to the young man I am treating now. His name is Ishin."

"Yes" the woman said. "That is my son." Rei was hit suddenly by the news. The husband tried to quiet his wife by taking her shoulder but she simply collapsed into sobbing and sorrow. "My only son....my sweet boy. They took him from us and sent him into war the second they learned that he had a sword!"

"Please, settle down, Mizumi" the husband said. "This isn't going to help us."

"I'd like you to know" Rei said "that your son is indeed faring well. His wounds have all recovered and his mental state is slowly being weened from the constant stresses and terror of war." Mizumi and her husband were ecstatic to hear this. Their daughter even leaned in and smiled when they had heard Rei's report. "That being said, there is still much work I have to do. Ishin's current status is tied directly to his swords. Even though they are completely disconnected and he has not been in contact with them since arriving, his swords have stayed in their released state and exude a tremendous amount of energy."

"It's always been that way" the man said. Rei perked her ears and looked at him.

"Please, tell me" Rei said. "Any information that you have on your son will surely help me in aiding his recovery."

"Ishin was born special" the husband began. "His spiritual pressure was unlike anything anyone had ever seen in their lives. I, myself, have never been a part of war, but I knew many men who claimed my son was a prodigy shinigami. They told me that if he ever developed the power to slay Hollows that I should jump at the chance to foster it and make my son famous. But I've seen what war has done to people. Whole towns and grand blocks of the Seireitei have fallen because of war! No one is safe from it! I knew that, in time, Ishin's gift would develop, but I never planned for it to happen so early. It was merely years ago, though really it was close to ten whole years since Ishin developed his terrible powers. One day he went to bed no bigger than his little sister. The next he was awake with two horrid blades in each hand, **and taller than any man I'd ever known. He stood a full arm's length taller than I, his father, and his hair had turned from brown to bloody red.**"

"That's when he started to go insane" Mizumi, the mother, began in turn. "Poor Ishin.....he never got better. He was just so fascinated with his swords and his killing power. When a group of bandits wandered into our district, Ishin fought them all and suffered horrible wounds. But, he won, and he protected all of us from the thieves by killing them. It was such a terrible sight! He became so restless after that that his wounds never fully healed! He always swung his swords around, fighting imaginary opponents, and at night he'd stay up talking to them, _talking_ to those **demon blades of his!!!**"

"Calm down, mother" the girl said, patting her mother's back. Mizumi took a deep breath and took to her tea cup after it was refilled. She took a hand to her head and rubbed her weary eyes.

"A man from the Seireitei came one day" she continued "and asked to see our son, who was in bed sleeping."

"He took him from us" the father continued "and told us that he would solve everything in exchange for our cooperation. I thought that Ishin would be cured, but instead they abused his powers and sent him out to war! Then, just a short while ago, we heard that the army was coming back from their campaign, so we went to try and see him."

"They wouldn't let us see our son!" Mizumi exclaimed. "Those monsters told us that he was no longer a son of ours!!!"

"Please" Rei said, instantly returning peace and calm to the tense room. "I understand your emotions well, and I empathize with you. I'd like to know one more thing before I can safely proceed with my healing practice. Just how old _is_ Ishin? How old was he when he first attained his swords?"

"Like I said" the father began "it was about ten or so years ago, a little longer than that. That year....when his swords suddenly came to him, he was **110 years old.**" Rei was shocked. In the standards of the long-lived shinigami of the spiritual plane, 100 years equates to a mortal 10 on average. Some shinigami can live for over a thousand years, and its is indeed rumored that some live into the several-thousands of years somehow. Given Ishin's body and state of mind, Rei was utterly shocked and disgusted over the realization that a child, a mere boy, had been sent into a war and scarred so much. It took her a moment to regain her own emotional bearings from the overwhelming sensation, but when she did she stood straight up and planted her feet to keep from wobbling.

"I must tell you what I have been doing up until now" Rei said. "I have found a way to balance his mind by altering the spiritual structure of his body. Currently, I am redirecting the flow of his essence into the amplification of Earthen energy. As I progress, his body will become more and more earth-like, canceling out the other spiritual auras that surround him. This will return his body to a natural state and concentrate it into a single type. His swords, however, are the root of all of this. They bear an aura of destruction the likes of which I have never seen. Of all the types of aura that can possibly occur, this one is something that is wholly unique. Therefore, his swords being the source of his madness, I have sealed them in a hidden area of the estate so that not even he will be able to find them if he tries. This will minimize the direct contact he has with the contaminating objects and speed the recovery and alteration of his reiatsu."

"Then what will you do with his swords?" the husband asked.

"I certainly cannot destroy them" Rei said "for that may have dire repercussions on his own soul. He could die with them as he has entrusted to them all of him. He abandoned his former self, the innocent child that you knew, and became a mindless warrior with an unquenchable bloodlust when he was first thrown headlong into war."

"Then you can help him?" Mizumi asked desperately. "You will give us back our son?"

"Of course I shall" Rei said. "It may take time, but your son will be given back to you in the state he was in before his swords manifested. The swords themselves I will seek to seal somehow so that he can exist without their influence but without destroying them."

"Then the threat will still exist" the father said "that they might find him again and pull him out to war..."

"No" Rei said, pulling his attention. "If a shinigami's sword is sealed properly, then they can no longer fight. That is what I shall seek to do to Ishin." The family was moved nearly to tears. The father bowed on his hands and knees before Rei and exclaimed his gratitude.

"Thank you, Lady Unohana!" he cried. "Thank you so much!!!" Rei knelt down and placed a calming hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw her face smiling down on him with a message of peace and love.

"You may stay here as long as you wish" Rei said "so that you may be even closer to your son."

"That is what I wanted to ask you next!" the father exclaimed. "Your mercy is boundless, Lady Unohana. You are a grand, fantastic person! I can hardly believe, in a time of endless war, someone like you exists in this world!" Rei glanced down and smiled at him. His praise passed her by for the gratitude she felt, and even that registered thin for her. Rei had done what she had always done. She took those scarred by war and healed their wounds. Thanks were never necessary....

* * *

Days had passed since Ishin's family was invited to stay. They were fed, taken care of and treated as family in the enormous house. The father talked with the men and the guards on why they chose to stay, soldiers away from the war front. He drank with them and mingled with them all while still staying close to his wife and daughter. Mizumi and he daughter offered their help wherever necessary and went to the garden to admire its beauty each day. Rei's efforts redoubled on healing Ishin's aura and solidifying an Earthly influence on his body. After a few days, her efforts paid off as his body indeed started to alter and shrink back to its former fitting state. He progress with the swords went unrecorded and unspoken, but each day she left that room she seemed to carry and exhausted sense of pride.

Everything was progressing well. The Unohana estate continued to operate in a pristine and orderly fashion. However, being in the middle of the wildnerness as it was, the estate was not immune to the dangers of the wilds. Guards were placed at the borders every night to report immediately to and from each other on the goings on of the forest. Hollows were spotted and mostly eliminated. The few that got away simply ran like animals and never returned, either dead from injury or fled to their realm out of cowardice.

Each night the pressures of the Hollows would send chills through the bodies of everyone in the estate, including the poor family of Ishin who were guarded at all times from the desperate, animistic fiends. They were protected and knew it, and even the startling chills of fear did nothing to move their hearts away from the generosity and benevolence of Rei's hospitality. Each night they talked together of what their family would be like when Ishin was returned to them and how they would be happier than they had ever been....

One night, on a full moon, a dreadful roar echoed through the forests and many guards were mobilized. The pressure of the Hollow that had come was so daunting and frightful that even Rei herself woke up and equipped her sword in preparation for it. The roaring all came from the woods around the manor, but the pressure was focused and increasing in the garden....

"Kido squad!" a commanding guard shouted. A line of men and women armed with blades, battle-scars and powerful flares of light in their hands were gathered on the roof of the hallway at the garden's manor-side border. "Spread the light! Find the Hollow!" Each supporting member took a knee, aimed their hands and fired spheres of light that exploded off in the distance. The entire skyline outside the garden walls was bright and flashing with little movement at all. Then came up a huge object covered in shadows from beneath the tops of the trees, and then it ducked back down with a roar.

"Was that it!?" a guard shouted.

"That this was _huuuuge!_" Telly exclaimed, a leading member of the kido squad even as a young girl. The battle-ready soldiers spread out in the garden and took to the outer wall, standing guard with their blades drawn and ready. Rei stood amongst them with her hands folded into her sleeves.

"This is a tremendous power" Rei said "but it is still only a Hollow. Sever its mask and it shall be no more." The Hollow roared again and the bright lights slowly dimmed and died in the air. The kido squad moved back and silently ducked into the shadows to prepare their next possible attack.

"Isn't it strange, though?" a guard said to Rei. "Lady Unohana, I'm no experienced Hollow-tracker. I can barely follow the pressures of my own comrades in times of battle. But still, even if it's that far off, how can it seem to be so close by right now?"

"It's like it's already here" another guard said. Rei suddenly became aware of something and drew her sword. She turned and blocked an invisible strike that powered into her sword and threw her through the air and off of the wall.

"Lady Unohana!!" a guard exclaimed. His body was clutched from behind by something, an invisible force, and he was raised up off his feet. The force squeezed tighter and tighter until his back snapped and blood gushed from his mouth. Then he was dropped into a yawning, black void in the ground that closed and grinned with an evil smile.

"Hollow!!!" a guard shouted. The ground suddenly started rising up and laughing low. A giant of a Hollow had appeared. **It's body was round and moved along the ground like a slug but its face was enormous. Tentacles stretched out from all over its body and more seemed to spawn anywhere on its skin that it desired. **Without even looking the Hollow attacked and broke the warriors' line. Two men were grabbed and killed instantly, then tossed into the Hollow's mouth. A veil of slime-like flesh dripped away, revealing a huge set of bone-white teeth that opened up and briefly revealed another set of upper and lower teeth within the accursed thing's face. A giant Hollow had infiltrated the manor and was on the attack!

"**So many morsels"** it voiced with a deep boom of a voice **"and so little time. By the end of this full-moon night, all of these souls will be mine!! RAAAAAAGGGHH!!!!!"** It's roar shook the very estate grounds like a quake. Its pressure paralyzed many of the brave men who braced its impact to fight. Once it was through with its roar, many men bravely dashed forward to fight it in the absence of their Lady of War. Their swords sank into its slime-like skin and were pulled from their hands with great force. The fiendish thing suddenly shrank and sank into a puddle of its own goo that went down into a hole, taking with it the swords of many of the warriors.

"What the hell was that!?" a man shouted. "This thing can't be hurt, can it!?"

"Not by sword alone!" Telly shouted. The men looked up at the roof of the building and saw her standing all proud and arrogant with the kido squad behind her. "You leave this to us! We'll teach this disgusting Hollow not to mess around with the divine guard of the Unohana Manor!!!"

"Where'd this hole come from?" an observant warrior asked. He inspected the burrow, wide enough for a shinigami like him to fit into which seemed to narrow as it descended so infinitely down. "This garden is always in pristine care! Anyone would notice a hole this big before a battle!"

"Oh, damn" another man cursed. "Men! Divide into two parties! Search the estate! **A Hollow has breached our defenses! It dug a tunnel from the forest into here while our backs were turned! These monsters are dangerously organized!!!**" The men still equipped with swords took most of those who were without and went into the compound. The rest, all veterans of war, all wearing proud marks of their courageous fighting history as scars or bandaged wounds or militant haircuts, stayed in the garden and awaited the return of their vicious, viscous foe.

"Hey!" Telly shouted. "You're ignoring me on purpose aren't you!! Don't you underestimate the kido squad, you jerks!!!"

"Uh...." a man groaned. "That kid's pretty obnoxious, eh?"

Rei, meanwhile, had managed to regain her footing before being thrown too far away and was en route back to her manor. Suddenly, from the silent darkness, a growling creature sprung. A Hollow with long, bladed arms and an open mouth came jumping at her from behind. Rei sped up her running and outpaced the Hollow's leap, running past as its arm sank down in stabs. The Hollow then gave chase, letting its tongue drape out of its mouth as it sped through the woods after its prey.

"I give no pity" Rei said "to either the fools who love war nor the creatures who start it!" Rei stopped suddenly and drew her sword. The Hollow crossed its bladed arms before its face to guard itself, ignoring Rei's obvious threatening glare. She took her sword up in both hands at chest level, a traditional pose, and stood firm. "Do not mistake me for any ordinary woman" Rei said calmly. The Hollow charged forward and swung both of its arms out. Rei had disappeared from where it hung in the air, with streaks of light parting the wind where Rei once stood, and she reappeared with her sword drawn in its sheathe again several steps behind the beast. Suddenly, with only a curious grunt as a final sounding, the Hollow was bisected and evaporated into a black mist of energy. Rei turned her woeful eyes as the beast was destroyed and offered it a moment of silence and pause. Then, with a flash-step, she continued on to the high walls of the manor, an elegant and deadly lady whose swore spared no quarter for the demons that ruined her peace...


	97. Ishin, the Past of a Mad Soldier 3

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

The manor was alive and in a panic. The rooms were locked and the wings were all sealed down as shinigami with swords at their sides scattered and fervently searched for signs of any attack. Two shinigami met as they ran from opposing corridors at a four-way hallway crossing.

"Anything?" one asked.

"No" he said. "I'm going to the west part."

"A group is still searching that" the first said "but help is always good. I'll go east."

"Be careful" the other said. They separated at simply that, one heading west and the other east. The man heading east came up to a room that was forced open and drew his sword. He sliced down the door and took up a protective, soldierly stance, but the first sight he saw was one of failure. The room was empty save for the stains of blood on the wall and the remnants of a struggle. There had been sleeping men in there, men who had no intention to ever wield a sword, men who lived peacefully within the manor cooking and cleaning and in times even aiding the injured many that found their way there. A Hollow had come by, the shinigami knew. He bowed his head in a quick prayer and fled, keeping his sword out.

_Why must this happen!?_ He thought. _We are never warned about these things. No great advents occur that pre-warn us when such a terrible thing will happen. We've had visitors come and go without a single problem, and men of grand power spend multiple nights without a single incident of an attack! So then, why now? Of all times and for all reasons, why must we be under attack now!?_ The soldier stopped in front of a room, one he had guarded in the past days. The room where the powerful Ishin slept and meditated under the influence of Lady Unohana. _Could it be....him?_

Suddenly, a spark of danger and a creak of the wooden floor. The shinigami turned and swung on instinct, clashing against some bone-hard substance and pushing back an entity from mid-pounce. In the pale light he could see it. It was a Hollow with a low bow-legged crouch and long, scooping shovel-like forearms. Its forehead was broad and concave and topped like a spade. A shoveling beast, one that had much experience digging.

"Heheheee" the Hollow laughed. "I surprised you, didn't I?"

"Uah!" the shinigami exclaimed. "You...can talk?"

"Don't be so damn conceded" the Hollow growled. "Of course I can talk! I know Hollows that talk better than most shinigami!"

"Bastard!" the shinigami lowed. "You killed those men, didn't you!? Fiend, prepare to answer for your actions!" The shinigami stepped in and swung hard. The Hollow blocked it simply with one arm, then swung its other arm up into the shinigami's gut.

"You're a poor excuse for a swordsman" the Hollow said. "I've likewise fought men twice as strong as yo-" the shinigami pushed through the pain and kicked the beast square in its unopened mouth. The Hollow grunted and staggered back in recoil. The shinigami took his sword from its hard arm and stepped in to swing again. The Hollow jumped up and to the side, avoiding the attack, and gripped the shinigami's head with both of its hard, powerful arms. "That hurt, you know!" The Hollow twisted itself around in the air and snapped the shinigami's neck before it landed. His body fell and his sword clattered out of his hand and onto the floor while the Hollow stood behind his corpse, shrugging its shoulders.

"Now what should I do?" it wondered aloud. "These beings tend to travel in packs as well, so the others will eventually find out he's dead and look for him. I suppose I should just carry on with my business like I planned and **eat some shinigami before retreating to Hueco Mundo.**" The devious evil spirit started off down the hall with arms folded out and in front at its sides, making heavy strides with its short tail trailing behind. It passed in front of Ishin's door and doubled back on it for a quick second, eying the prospect down and measuring the power inside the room. "Could I?" it wondered. The wave of energy hit it like a blunt wind. Whatever was within was something the Hollow wouldn't face alone. "No, whatever is in there would tear me apart...." Suddenly, something caught the dejected beast's nostril-slits. It sniffed at the air, catching the scent of Ishin's reiatsu, and found much weaker samples somewhere in the distance. **"Ah, so it has a family I can eat instead. Excellent...!**"

The Hollow dashed through the halls, following the scent, and came to a stop at a four-hallway crossing. _Damn! Now there's even more of them! This powerful reiatsu is so far diluted, though, that these others might just be clones. Or wait, that's how a Hollow would be, but do shinigami work like that? Can they just....clone themselves?_ The Hollow took a deep and introspective moment to try and come to an educated and logical conclusion as to the nature of the shared reiatsu scent, but it found nothing and shook its head of thoughts. _Well, I can already tell that there's only one nearby and two somewhere further on. I'll just eat the one and be on my way!_ The Hollow ran around a corner and encountered a wall of shinigami with swords held out.

…_.....DAMN!!!!_

"Kill it!" the head of the wall shouted. "Kill the fiend!" The Hollow panicked and thrust both of its forearm shovels into the floor. Then it flipped up the wood from beneath the shinigami's feet and dove down into the ground beneath the support foundation.

"This must be how the other one got into the mansion grounds!" a man exclaimed.

"So this thing is responsible..." the head said. "Check all the rooms! We can't tell where it could emerge! Protect the lives of everyone incapable of fighting for themselves at risk of your own! **Be soldiers!!!**" Before his speech was fully spoken the men had dispersed and were checking rooms with swords at the ready. When one opened a room, the room where Ishin's family so gratefully slept, he brandished a look of horror and rage. There was the Hollow, bent over a body on the floor, with **blood in its mouth and hunger in its growl.** Ishin's father lay under the beast, his throat torn out, a dead man.

"**More"** growled the Hollow. It turned and whipped its short tail at the shinigami. Its eyes glared red. **"I want MORE!!!"** The Hollow pounced, right into the man's expert swing, and was cleaved straight in half. It dissolved before it could hit the floor, but not without the casualty of the innocent. The guard sighed and gave a proper, solemn head-bow toward the man's disgraced, dead body.

_I am sorry_ he prayed. _My blade is swift, but my feet were slow. I shall take up the burden of your lost life for the rest of mine, old man. It is the only recourse fitting a soldier like me...._ So the man closed the door and stood before it, guarding it further from all others who would dare intrude on the sullen peace within.....

* * *

The hardened soldiers remained guarding the garden, their swords unsheathed and their hearts beating with a furious tension. From either that one hole they stood so tightly around or from any breach in the ardent walls of the estate, that fiendish creature could return at any moment. Each grizzled soldier was ready to fight the first thing that moved with a bloodlusting fury while the kido squad of sure-sighted men and women stood above them on the roof keeping a careful eye on everything. Telly was at their center, acting as a watchtower on the lowest awning of the roof, keeping a stern and steady read on the constant flows of spiritual pressure.

"I've got something!" Telly exclaimed. "It's a huge, massively powerful pressure!"

"Where!?" one of the men shouted.

"In the hole again?" the men near the burrow shouted.

"Fools!" Telly shouted, pointing to the wall. "You don't need any sensory powers! You have eyes! Just _look!_" The men looked up to her and followed her finger to see a shadowy vision standing before the silver light of the moon. At its side was a blade sheathed in its scabbard. The men could tell by the slender and graceful silhouette who it was and immediately rejoiced in their own, stoic ways. Rei Unohana jumped down to the ground, near the men guarding the hole, and let rest her arms at her side.

"Lady Unohana" a man with a bald, scarred head and eyepatch began, "did you manage to see the Hollow in the woods?" Rei turned to him and slowly shook her head.

"There are Hollows besides that one lurking around" Rei said "but I did not see where that one had gone. The giant slime-Hollow is still elsewhere, or perhaps even..." she looked at the burrow, and the soldiers around it jumped away.

"It _could_ still be down there!" a man exclaimed. "We never figured that!"

"The last place we'd think it would be!" another man said with an angered snap of his fingers. "Dammit! Why is it so smart all of a sudden?"

"Leave this to meeeee!" Telly called as she jumped from the roof to the ground. "I've got a perfect kido to take care of this problem! I'll use a flood of fire to scorch that thing out of hiding and out of the manor's underground! Then, if it **dares **to surface and face me, I'll whip out a quick binding spell and freeze it in place so the rest of you can shatter it to pieces!"

_Make us do all the work, eh?_ The group of hardened swordsmen said. Telly was standing tall and proud for a moment until Rei came over and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"At what risk to the swords that the Hollow has consumed?" Rei asked.

"Hueh?" Telly grunted.

"That Hollow has stolen several swords" Rei said. "If they are broken by kido, the resonance will injure the reiatsu of their wielders. It would be irresponsible to risk breaking their swords over a fleeting hope of an attack." Telly lowered her head and started to sulk, not seeing Rei smiling at her. "It's good that you are thinking positively, Telly. Please, keep everyone's morale up if you aren't fighting. You are good at that." Telly suddenly looked up with sparkles in her eyes and nodded fervently. She turned to the kido squad on the roof and jumped up to them.

"Alright!" she shouted. "Let's sing a song to boost our warring spirits!!!"

"Uh....?" the squad flatly grunted. Rei and Telly, both spiritually sensitive beings, were suddenly stricken with an alarm of presence. It was not a Hollow, or even a shinigami. The feint, innocent defenselessness of the presence itself was what alarmed them. They both turned in the same direction, toward the furthest entrance into the garden which opened up to the flat grass, and saw Ishin's mother and sister frightfully wandering into the night. Rei stood up to rush at them, but something overwhelmed her.

"Lady Unohana" a guard began, "aren't those."

"Save them!" Rei exclaimed. "Before this beast gets to them!" The soldier saw a terrifying glare in her eyes. With a flash of steely silver and pale white moonlight, with her eyes narrowed into glowing slits of light on her shadowed face, Rei sliced free her leg from some unseen binding and jumped away. She spun her sword in a glowing circle in the air, an act so fast that it became nothing more than a swift flashing of light to those that saw it, and her miracle blade _Mujitsuyu_ shone out a brilliant white light that brightened the garden grounds. A severed slime tentacle, nearly transparent in Rei's illumination, was squirming up out of the burrow in the garden.

"It's back!" one of the men shouted. They all drew their swords on instinct. The man tasked with saving the women made a run for them and tried to keep his eyes behind him, looking back to keep track of the glowing aura of the battle he distanced himself from. Finally, he reached them, only to have Telly jump down right in front of him with two other women in robes of black from the kido squad. The soldier stopped with a scowl.

"What are you two doing out here!?" Telly demanded. "It's dangerous! You have to go back inside, right now!"

"We can't!" Mizumi said, fighting back sobs. "My husband....he told us to go as fast as we could out here...there was a monster in the hallway! We escaped after it ran past us!"

"The Hollow!?" the soldier said. "What about your husband? What did he do?"

"He was trying to defend us" Mizumi said, so fretful that she couldn't stop herself from outright crying. "He made us run away! He made us run away while he stayed behind!!!" The soldier didn't say anything, for he could assume the best of his fate was the worst news for them to bear.

"GAAAAAHHHH!!!!" A soldier from the battle shouted. He was picked up by a long and slender tentacle and heaved up over the wall of the estate.

"NO!" the grizzled leader exclaimed.

"**Huhuhuu!**" the Hollow mockingly laughed. Its mask, now tiny enough to slither its way up and onto the thicker tentacle extending from the burrow, was revealed and opened with a wide, taunting smile. **"What a delicious meal you've given me! The swords were a fancy treat, but a whole shinigami's body! You are wonderful hosts! HAHAHAHA!!!"**

"Silence" Rei lowed. She flash-stepped forward and stopped near the wall of the garden grounds. Her sword was held at her side, tip near the ground where a flower bud grew. She moved it just an inch to tap the bud, and a gorgeous white head of petals bloomed just as the Hollow's mask and tentacle were made into a severed mist. "You shall not speak ill of the dead here...." Rei motioned to sheathe her sword, sure that the worst of the battle was over.

"**LADY UNOHANA! DUCK!!!!**" The man from before, running in a flash-step speed from the women in the corner of the garden, made a dive into Rei. She was stunned, at first, by the alarming suddenness of his call. Then, she was horrified, for he was stopped in mid-flight with his sword still sheathed. His face twitched a few times, then became stiff as his body went limp. He was slowly risen up, impaled by an unseen force, and taken over the high wall of the mansion grounds.

"**Huhuhuhu...."** the Hollow chuckled. **"Can you not see now the danger you face? I am known far and wide through Hueco Mundo as _El Masa_. I am the joined bodies of over a hundred Hollows whose reiatsu dissolved into the form you see me in..."** A giant thudding press went against the walls and they began to slowly bend to an enormous weight. Rei dashed away and appeared in the middle of an adamant soldier line. The kido girls took the mother and daughter in a single leap up to the roof to keep them safe and prepared their attacks at a distance. The Hollow slithered its way up on top of the wall, compressing it and bending it under an enormous weight, and extended tentacles that stretched out of eyesight in all directions. **"I am an invincible being! I am free of all bodily harm! Try as you dare! _YOU CAN'T TOUCH MEEE!!!_"** To Mizumi and her daughter, seeing such a thing was horrifying beyond imagination.

But to Rei, and Telly, and all those gathered to fight and defend with restless grins and menacing glares, it was just a hearty challenge....

* * *

Waking up in an unfamiliar place is common for the soldier on the move. The lands they explore and the enemies that they fight give way to a whole new life worth of new and exciting experiences. Ishin was used to this, but in the past few days he'd woken up in similar places to similar sights and sounds. At first it was nothing, just cramped darkness with humid air. Then, suddenly, he was pulled from the darkness and awoke to pleasant sights and sounds and smells. His world of darkness and violence had been so quickly taken from him, or he from it, that he could hardly believe he wasn't dreaming. Only the chill of loneliness reminded him that he was awake, because in his dreams he was never without the company of faceless warring brothers or his trademark butchery blades.

Suddenly, in this instance of waking, Ishin decided to stand up and move. He had never gone against any authority before, but this time was different. He was in a place of peace and understanding, far removed from the fields of battle. Ishin got up from his bed off of the floor and went for the door. He found it hard to open, but with enough force he managed to push it down and duck out from under the low arch. Then he turned to the right and started walking. There seemed to be a starkness to the hallways he marched through. A fearsome sort of staleness. This was normal for the most part. The soldiers in the other rooms needed to sleep, if they were soldiers at all.

Ishin continued through the halls, ignoring the slight sounds of stirring and the distant rushing of feet. These were normal sounds of war, plain and simple. Soldiers rushing out to get a good position in the line, on a field where rank didn't matter. These were men that Ishin knew and would proudly fight with. They were brothers who didn't have names, a family with which he only shared the blood which he spilled. Ishin continued to wander, unknowingly following the sounds of rushing feet and war. Then, he was stopped and pulled aside and into a room he didn't know. He stood for a moment, then tried walking, but was stopped again by a sharp ringing in his head, a ringing so clear and loud that it muted out all the other sound.

_Hello boy_ whispered a voice. Ishin's eyes shifted left, then right, looking for the source. _You can't see me yet, but you will. You rarely ever see me when it matters. I'm just a blur to you anymore, just a quick flash of color before your eyes, followed always by a deep splash of red._ Ishin's eyes drifted two different ways, one right and the other left, leaving him rather confused in the middle of the room.

"Uh, are you talking to me?" Ishin asked.

_Take up steel and sever flesh and bone_ whispered the voice in a tantalizing tone. _What else am I for but to rend and destroy? Can you build a city with a sword? Or with temporary corpses that fade off into the air after too short a time? Can you erect and capital ground with merely the resolve of willpower?_

"Um.......maybe?" Ishin said. Something threw him against the wall, face first, and he bounced away and fell straight down to the floor. He looked up and saw one of his blades, hung over a smoking incense in the middle of a bowl or sweet-smelling water. Ishin looked behind him, across the long room, and saw his other blade affixed in place in the same manner. "What is this?" Ishin asked. "What's going on? These are my swords! What are they-"

_She did this_ the swords whispered _to try and bring you and I apart. She doesn't want warriors to exist in the world. She doesn't want strong people to exist in the world. She wants a world with no war or conflict ever happening!_ Ishin stood up, looking shocked at the floor, as if flush with some horrible revelation.

"No war...." Ishin said in grave fear. "Without war, what will I do? All I know is war. I can't live in anything but a war! Is this....._her_ doing, seriously!?"

_We must struggle against it_ the swords declared in a single voice of united, mad chorus. _Take up your strength, fighter! Show what a soldier does! Go to the field of battle and become dominant!!!_ Ishin was stolen into the influence of the swords again. The calm nightly colors of faded white paper walls and dim brown floors turned quickly to red and marble. Everything went mad in Ishin's eyes. In an instant his swords were in his hands. He could see himself, a fierce warrior, skin bare and ready to be coated with nothing but hot blood shed from the army that was his enemy.

_Now go!_ Commanded the spirit of Ishin's blade. They merged together, resonating as one, an eternally released shikai in its master's hands once more. "**Let us bleach the battlefield of all life!!!**" Ishin roared. He charged blindly ahead and ran through winding tunnels with great speed and power. He came to a wall that bore an evil grinning face and he slashed his way through it. He was outside in a small field, walled in by great steel clubs. In a short distance he saw that many of the clubs had fallen and a demon, **some gigantic creature of scale hide and stout lizard-like head with a great many horns all over its broad snout. It had many long arms with talons reaching out from its round, scaly back. Its head had a broad and flat-toothed grin with eyes surrounded by deep blackness.**

"What is that?" Ishin asked. Before his humanity could uproot itself to answer his curiosity, an answer came to him. He crouched down and snorted like an enraged animal. **"Enemy! It has to be!!!**" Ishin made a tremendous leap from his crouch and came down swinging into the enemy's back. He started to slip and fall down its smooth scaled skin, but he dug his blades into its thick, armor-like flesh and stopped himself from falling. He looked down. Facing the demonic thing was a line of soldiers like Ishin had never seen. He, barbaric and undressed, carrying only a mad rage and two blades into battle, and they shimmering bastions of guardian strength. Decked in armor of shining silver and pearl, these beings held swords not unlike the myriad he had seen before, but one was different. In all respects, one glowing warrior was totally different and held a **shining white blade.**

"These are brothers of war" Ishin said. "I can't see their faces past their helmets, but these are my brothers of _**WAAAR!!!**_" Ishin dug his blades down hard into the beast's hide and stomped his feet into its skin, denting footholds to keep him up. "We all fight to the same end! It doesn't matter who wears what into battle! In the end, **if you're not dead then you've WON!!!**" Ishin started hacking and chopping at the dragon's hide, delivering blow after blow of blind, fatal fury. His madness only intensified from there, and his attacks became brutally powerful.

He could only see the war in his head. Not the horrified guards or Rei protecting his sister, nor the captured bodies of shinigami immersed into El Masa's slimy form. He just chopped and hacked away madly, unaware that it was his brothers he was quickly murdering....

* * *

Rei stood aghast, watching the young Ishin hack away at the Hollow's slimy flesh where the soldiers had been dragged into.

"What's he doing!?" a man shouted.

"He's killing them!" another exclaimed. "Someone stop him!!!"

"No!" Rei ordered. Two men ran up anyway with their swords posed to attack Ishin. The mad young man turned with his foot planted solidly on the unsolid Hollow's body and swung his blade to lop off their arms. They both fell into the Hollow's sinking slime flesh and were slowly drawn into it. Through Ishin's eyes, he saw the scales of the beast's back slowly devouring the armored soldiers, chomp by chomp, until nothing remained of them. They had assimilated into the armored hide of the dragon, they had become a part of it. Though Ishin could still see the outlines they made like graves so shallow the body's form could still be seen, he could only see within that indentation the flesh of a monster, so he hacked away at it.

_It's flesh is tender where it's just eaten_ Ishin thought, overcome by the madness of his swords. _I have to strike fast! And hard! And swiftly before the flesh hardens again!_ Rei and the soldiers that remained at her sides looked on in horror and listened to the wet carving hacks he made into the monster's flesh.

"**Uaaahhh"** El Masa groaned. **"It huuuuurts.....get it off me. Get it off...!"**

"It's in pain" Rei said. "We have to use this to our advantage! Move up and strike its mask before it can kill again!"

"Right!" the men shouted. They, led by Rei, dashed forward and encircled the horrid beast's huge body, looking for its mask under its slime-like skin.

"Kido squad!" Telly called. "Prepare yourselves! Aim and fire at will!" The men and women of the line on the roof held out their open palms, aimed by grasping their wrists tightly, and fired explosive balls of energy. Simple techniques, but very effective. El Masa's flesh blew off of its body in layers and spattered around at random in the garden, only to dissolve into weightless darkness when it was gone too long.

"**No!"** the Hollow exclaimed in fear. **"My body! Stop! MY BODY!!!!"**

"We will purify this cursed body" Rei lowed "and send you into the void of de-creation."

"**AGGGGHHHHH!!!!!"** roared El Masa. It shook its massive body, quaking the earth and shaking the walls and roof of the estate. Mizumi and her daughter held on to their protectors gravely, but Mizumi slipped off of a roof shingle and fell down. El Masa heard her screaming and reached out to grab her out of the air as she fell. **"I cannot let a meal go to waste! This body of mine is too important to let die!!!"** El Masa revealed its mask, pushing it out through the slimy gel of its skin so that Ishin unknowingly stood on top of its forehead. Ishin looked down and saw, through his eyes, a praying woman with a smile being taken into the wide and gaping maw of the enormous creature. Its jaws were lined with spikes of teeth and its tongue reached out and curled around her like an arm. Then the flesh and form of the broad tongue warped and became a mirrored image of the woman, but with a face of fear and hands scraping at her cheeks in terror.

_It feeds to grow stronger_ Ishin thought. _I must stop it from feeding at all!!!_ Ishin thusly jumped down, kicking off of El Masa's mask so powerfully that he cracked it, and flew forward with his arms both wound around his chest. He landed with a crash into the ground, both arms swung far back, leaving a wing-like trail of blood and slime behind him. The Hollow's tongue, a slime-like protrusion with a current inside of it leading into its black-pit mouth, was severed along with what it was trying to eat. Mizumi's daughter looked down in horror at what her brother had done. A shrill, piercing scream went through the night sky, one that shook Ishin out of his madness and brought him swiftly into the realm of reality. There he saw, coated in black flames, the top-half of a woman's body which he barely knew, but one that he knew was not in any way a warrior. And this was someone he had killed.

_What have I done...!?_ Ishin thought. He dropped to his knees, unable to drop his blades, and started to shake. _Cold....why am I so cold? Why aren't I in my room? What's going on!?_

_There, there, little boy_ spoke a voice from within the furthest, deepest reaches of Ishin's head. _You don't need to think about such painful things any longer. I am here now. You will never have to face the world alone again. Now pick yourself up. There is still a great monster for you to face!_ Ishin followed the voice's order and stood up, his eyes devoid of all life and a short smirk on his face. A compelling sense of evil started to flow over him, like a warm wave of hot insanity hitting at every corner of his skull. He glared the demon-beast down and suddenly the air became displaced. **The aura of madness began to go everywhere, warping the normal spiritual pressure and throwing everything out of balance.**

"What's going on...?" a man around the Hollow asked.

"I feel sick" another groaned. Rei was unaffected. She stood within a protective shining light of her own cleansing aura, one of light and purity. She stabbed her sword into the flesh of the Hollow and made a swift run over it, slicing it in half from its back to its front and straight down the middle of its mask. She turned to her work, seeing the Hollow's mouth close with a thud and an evil glimmering stare in its eyes.

"**Well, at least my final meal was worth it"** El Masa tauntingly lowed. **"Well done, shinigami. I leave you with your other mess now....Huhuhuhuhu....."** El Masa's enormous body began to dissolve but the threat of lethal danger still seemed to beckon. It was dangerously close-by. Rei brought her sword up and blocked a berserk, full-body swing of Ishin's blade. The power sent her off to the side in a slide and stunned her with fear. His power overloaded hers and invaded her closed circle of purity, forcing her mind into a short burst of madness, giving him time to step forward and swing again. Rei ducked down and dashed to the side. Ishin pursued her, nothing in his eyes but a selfless anger and rage.

"Ishin, calm down!" Rei called. "Your swords are warping your mind! This is what got you here! This is why your family entrusted me to you! Ishin, you must calm down!!!" Ishin saw nothing but the form of a body and the made, white fires that surrounded it. A blade of pure black was in its hands, contrasting the white of its armor and giving off an awful glow. Ishin wound up his arm to throw one of his blades, but somehow it felt to heavy. His sister, a being he did not know at all, had fallen from the roof and grabbed onto his arm in desperation.

"Brother, stop!!!" she shouted. "Mother is dead! **YOU KILLED HER!!!!**" Ishin suddenly snapped back for a second. He remembered his mother, that pale but caring woman, and the blood that just moments ago drove him insane. Then he turned, keeping his arm and his sister where they were, and stared at her out of the corner of his blood-red eye.

".....what?" he softly asked. His sister was tearing up. She fell off his arm and onto her side in weakness and started to cry. Rei stayed herself from acting and held the others off with a commanding hand. She could see what the moment would lead to. The battle, for now, seemed to be over. Just as peace and calmness seemed to be restored, some new evil presence made itself aware. A serpent with a bone-white head, a Hollow snake, slithered up from the burrow and sped for Ishin.

"Damn! Another one!" a guard exclaimed. "Kill it! Kill it!!" At his words, words so familiar to the young warrior supreme, Ishin's mind went once more blank. He faced his sister, now an unknown entity, and turned to see an odd and long creature making its way between them in escape from warriors wielding silver blades against it.

_An enemy!_ Ishin thought. _They're after it! Is it me? Her? No, it's that thing! I have to kill it!_ So Ishin thought, narrowly and madly, only to kill. The snake brushed against his sister's side just as Ishin swung down for it. She had turned just a moment too soon and her arm was taken off. The snake continued to wiggle away, just past her head, and opened its mouth. Ishin stomped on the creature's head and crushed it under foot. The whole thing evaporated away, leaving him standing tall and panting with a mad scowling grin on his face. His sister had gone silent with fear and looked up at the immense figure looming over her.

_This isn't him_ she thought. She recalled the sights of her dear, sweet brother with auburn hair and a cheerful smile. _No, that's right. My brother....he died a long time ago, and then this monster came in his place. This monster....must have eaten my brother. I hope....something eats him as well...._ Out of fear, or perhaps even sadness, she died right there. Rei managed to silence Ishin by stabbing her glowing blade through his head, temporarily curing his ailing mind. She could tell that she was too late to save his sister, and at looking down on the mad warrior with blades still loose in his hands, she wondered in doubt if she was capable at all of saving him anymore.....


	98. The Room of Dark Mist

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.

* * *

To keep madness sealed away was the only remaining answer. In order to cure Ishin of his madness, of his sword's bloodlust, Rei sealed it all away. She contained the powerful aura in the swords and did her best to absolve Ishin's ailing mind of its memories. She would make sure he could no longer recall that night of horror, when his family died under his own deathly strokes, and let him live a serene life with her. She would shoulder their deaths for him, knowing that a man such as Ishin, a soldier removed from the war, was incapable of shouldering anything anymore.

In time, the powerful aura suppressed within Ishin's blades had warped them. They were no longer the clean cleavers they were, but blunt and stone-like, as if hammered from the natural elements with crude and primitive techniques. Their monstrosity had taken a new shape and depth, and their influence of madness had become tenfold amplified. Thankfully, they stayed out of Ishin's grasp. They were sealed within his own body, within kido-crafted shells of binding paper. To keep them there, Rei took a drastic step in her curing of Ishin's body and embarked on a forbidden practice. To cross the threshold that separates a shinigami from his element, to allow the reiatsu to dissolve into the natural world so much was a sinful process. However, after crossing so many thresholds already, Rei never thought of the taboo she enacted and made Ishin's body like clay.

The swords within him never spoke. Ishin's mind was thrown back to his youth, before his swords had ever manifested, an innocent and naïve child. Without a mother or father, Ishin was declared an orphan of war and lived in the wing with the others as the biggest and strongest. He saw himself, though, as simply himself. A short, young boy with auburn hair and bright eyes, rather than the murderous giant he had become. The children around him feared him and the soldiers all pitied him. He was trapped, unaware, between the worlds of innocence and irrevocable horror. He was living one while having forgotten the other, trying to pass himself off for a kid in a world full of soldiers and beasts.

However, none could argue that he wasn't happy. Somehow, despite all that he had experienced, he managed to forget it all and negate all his memories. He lived in the manor with Rei and all her guards and staff and all the others whom she had taken in as if it were his own born home, and he was always happy about it. He would go to the garden and play in the flowers. He would sneak out into the forest and run around until he got tired. He was a jovial, care-free boy again, and each time his simple ways led him to a fault Rei would be there to dote on him. They were like sister and kid brother, or even like mother and son sometimes. She shouldered the weight from him of his family, and replaced it outright eventually.

One day, all that weight seemed lifted. A group of men claiming to be officials of the Seireitei's military government came, having heard that a warrior of theirs had somehow wound up under Rei's care. She did not deny anything and showed them to Ishin. As he was a child in mind and an orphan of war, Rei declined his ability to serve in any further fighting. His swords were gone, after all. His time as a soldier was gone. The officials argued for his safety, given the report of events that had led to his family's death. After much consideration, Rei relinquished control of Ishin and let him be led away by a man under the name of **Guy Rose.** She hadn't heard from him again until after Shin arrived, when news of a man of Ishin's exact description were filling the tales of widespread terror in a far-off land of the region.

To know that the one she cared for had been thrown back into the hellfires of war, and that he again chose to be thrust into the pit after meeting with a single man.....

In the calmness of the evening, Rei opened her eyes and looked out into a clearing behind the mansion. A field of stones, all marks for bodies never buried, lay before her. She looked down to the three closest to its edge and knelt down in prayer. Her solemn mood paid a graceful respect to the deceased of Ishin's life. His innocence was likewise buried with his family, as now he existed as Jin, a warrior once again. Despite all her efforts to take the fight out of him, fighting found him and rebirthed him as a warrior again.

"Feeling down?" asked a voice as light as the breeze. Rei looked over and stood from her spot. Her confidante, the man cloaked in bandages from head to foot, stood near her with his arms crossed. Rei sighed and turned her head down.

"Is it fate" Rei began "which tells us what we must do? How can I save someone from being a soldier if they were born as one? Is it possible at all for me to reach to a man's heart when all he knows is the coldness of steel and the warmth of blood and fire on his flesh?"

"War is terrible" the man said. "I won't argue for it. I feel like, at this point, I can't. However, it is necessary. If it weren't, we wouldn't be stuck in the middle of one. If things could go to peace easier than war, this feudal state between the major empires wouldn't exist. Men would fight, certainly, against Hollows or each other out of boredom or spite, but there wouldn't be war if peace was our first- no, our best option." Rei kept her gaze fixed to the ground. The man understood her feelings from what he had said, but he couldn't take his words back.

"In a way" he continued "we can suppose this is all fate."

"Can we?" Rei said. "What cruel fate would allow this to happen?"

"Cruel?" the man said. "Well, he's alive, isn't he? And he's happy too. He's found a family again, one that lets him explore the grand world and expand his childish mind. In a way, I suppose finding Shin Kenpachi wasn't just a proper, graceful mission of ours. It was something we simply _had to do._ To keep the peace in an age of endless war is the job for a soldier who knows no limit. Shin Kenpachi could very well be our ultimate ticket to a lasting peace, couldn't he?" Rei turned toward the manor and started walking back, leaving her confidante to himself. He knew she heard him but couldn't respond.

_It's a lot to take in_ he thought. _For a woman like you to accept, nay, justify war....I hope you're not too stubborn to try._ The man took a glance at the cemetery and vanished away, back to the manor with impeccable speed...

* * *

Rei returned to her manor and immediately went to the infirmary to check on the others. While Jin was healed in the cavern spring, his comrades were laid in separate rooms to heal on their own. The first Rei visited was Suichi. His palms had grown rough and calloused from the accelerated healing that the kido nurses applied but most of his body was still in a poor shape. His wounds had closed, but somehow the icy buildup all around him hadn't left. There were spots of his skin that were perpetually cold and where blood flow was minimal. The nurses knew his aura was ice, but if he was unconscious it shouldn't permeate his being as much, thus they assumed something was wrong.

He hadn't yet awoken. He was still deep in a dazed comatose state from the harrowing battle he had fought, unconsciously collecting his knowledge and sharpening his mind. Within the darkness of his soul, Suichi quietly meditated on the only length of chain that existed in the endless dark void of his spirit. It extended endlessly forward and back but coiled around nothing and led to nothing. It was an uncommon but familiar place to the assassin, and he knew how to control himself while there.

_Breathe and relax_ Suichi thought. His soul had transferred into the body of his sword, the chained realm of Haganerensa, for safety. _Breathe and relax. Slow the flow of life to a near-death point. This is the **Gisei-shigai** technique. Freeze the body like icy steel and wait....eventually my enemies shall leave...._Suichi's meditation was deep and persistant. The spell he had brought was one that chilled his very veins and blood to flow slower and hardened his skin into a hardened, icy shell. It was a kido that controlled his body through deep concentration.

Rei saw through it and understood his caution at once. Rather than heal him quickly by using her sword, Rei attempted to connect to Suichi's mind by sitting at his bedside and concentrating on projecting her reiatsu into his sword.

_Warriors will always take to their swords when scared for their life_ Rei thought. _Suichi, you are no different. You have the sophistication of an assassin and the budding courage of a fierce warrior. Feel proud, and feel safe. Let others be your shield for the time being, because now, there are others around you with the will to protect. You are in a safe place now. Release your shell...._ Rei opened her eyes to see if her communication got through. Suichi's skin started to steam and was harshly cold to the touch for a moment. Then the shell began to melt. Suichi's icy barrier of flesh started to warm up. The icy concentration gave way to sweat and a warm red burn over nearly all his skin. He was well again and the nurses rushed to help him further.

Rei left Suichi to them, knowing that they were competent in healing arts, and went into the next room to check on Hoji. She found his bed surrounded by a crowd of mostly young women and a few effeminate men.

"This guy" Hoji boasted "was beastly tall, alright? He had dark brown skin and fire-red hair, a weird looking dude, a whole half of my own body taller than me! And I **punted his ass into the air**, then danced around him with a flurry of punches and kicks. I blew a fierce wind into him! I must've broken nearly every bone in his huge body!"

"Wooooow!" one of the girls awed.

"Was he a strong guy?" another girl asked.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed in arrogance. "If he had wielded a real sword, then yeah, he might have even been stronger than me. But faster? Hell no! I ran around him so fast that the black of his robes meshed in with the black of the shadows. I could barely even _see_ him, I was moving so fast! But right when I got up close to him I could see his face, all stupid and surprised, and I **kicked it! **I kicked him so many times I can't even remember how many!"

"You're so manly, Hoji" one of the men with pouting lips said. He scooted his way up from the crowd and brought a hand up to feel Hoji's mostly-bandaged shoulder. "Oooo!" he said. "You're muscles are still so hard!"

"What can I say?" Hoji said, feeling proud of another man's admiration while being totally oblivious to his true intent. "I'm just the kind of guy who's undaunted by fatigue, you know?"

"So what happened after you beat him?" another girl asked.

"Well" Hoji began, "after I drove his giant ass into the ground, one of his buddies came out of the woods and started swinging a glowing sword at me! Turns out, he was after Suichi since Suichi'd run away from their fight when he was losing. I couldn't just let him kill my friend, you know, so I challenged him to test his power against me. Even with my wind-powered fists and feet, this kid's sword was simply no match! He swung his sword around and around, like he couldn't even wield the damn thing, and I just ducked and dodged it! But then, just as I was about to start up a real brawl, right when I was ready to kick this new guy's ass, I felt this big blast of energy. I took Suichi outta there and met up with Jin. Anyway...who wants to hear about my battle again?"

"Oooh!" a girl called, raising her hand. "Hoji, what was the name of that super-attack you did?"

"Hmm?" Hoji grunted. "Oh yeah! My up-until-then ultimate move. It was.....erm, wait a sec. It was all sort of spur-of-the-moment for me."

"_Joushou Toraou Bokusatsu-Kiba Shouri Ouda_" said Rei. The room turned to her and all of her staff respectfully bowed. Hoji looked around at them and was stricken suddenly with realization.

"Ah! That was it!" he exclaimed. "Nice memory, Rei! I'm glad I told you first or I would've forgotten about it entirely!"

"You never told me" Rei said "but you _do_ tend to talk about your battles in your sleep." Hoji was suddenly silent from shame. His pupils had shrunken back and nearly faded into the whites of his eyes out of embarrassed shock.

"......tch?"

"I'd like you to accompany me somewhere" Rei explained. "Please, get dressed and meet me outside the infirmary." Hoji nodded and scrambled underneath his bed covers to try and find a semblance of clothing.

"Uh, where _are_ my clothes?" Hoji asked. Rei left the room and waited outside the hall of healers with a very serious and stern air about her. When Hoji finally joined her, wearing only the pants he managed to find and carrying his sheathe and broken sword at his side, he felt a great gravity in her face. There was something in Rei's eyes, half-drawn with worry and pity, that told him something was wrong. Some kind of trouble had become apparent.

"Please come with me" Rei said. "I cannot penetrate the barrier around his room alone."

"We going to see....Shin?" Hoji asked. Rei nodded. Hoji sighed. "Alright, lead on." Suddenly, the fear and emotion left him. He became just as stern and serious as she. Rei led on, through the manor, to its central room, the greatest point of spiritual concentration in the entire estate. A sacred room that only a privileged few had been able to access: **the Unohana Laboratory.**

**

* * *

**

The Unohana name had been spread throughout most of the world as the first and foremost authority on the knowledge of Hollows. It was Rei's own father who had first pioneered the research to understand the nature of Hollows and observed their creation in the Human World. His reports led others to understand fully what Hollows truly were: corrupt human souls. Those ghosts who died and left great attachment to the world were bound by chains of fate to their graves and left to stir and fester in their own miserable emotion until their grief and anger invited a mass of monstrous change to their form. Once a human soul had been taken to the depths of darkness, to the Hueco Mundo where all Hollows spawn, it became a monstrosity that fed on the innocent souls that wandered about.

The role of the shinigami in this Golden Age of power is divided according to the kingdom from which a shinigami hails. All are expected to participate in war, but many are also expected to go out into the human world and perform soul burials, or konso. The warring regions managed to train their shinigami in such a way that their konso would result in the saved human soul being reincarnated as a shinigami within the reaches of their own kingdom. A shinigami of the Seireitei would absolve a soul and bring them, sans their human memories, directly to the Seireitei. The ability to do such a thing, to specific-region konso, had been researched by Rei's father and perfected by her mother.

The realization that Hollows, when killed, reveal and dissolve the souls of the humans they used to be, never fazed the warriors who hunted them. Most though they were doing so on a righteous zeal to complete the cruel circle of reincarnation. However, many regions faced dissonance with each other regarding the exact terms of soul revival into their world. The Seireitei believed that absolute order under a properly governed authority was needed if there was to remain a visible balance between both worlds. However, others just wanted to take as many souls as they could to amass their own armies while killing off Hollows as sport. The leaders of such empires were branded by others, specifically those allied with the Seireitei, as barbaric and purely fanatical. No standard has yet to stay between all different peoples. Many mistakes can sometimes be made, and the methods between shinigami are never the same.

Somehow, the Unohana Estate is able to exist as a haven for the war while being an inherited part of how it had worsened over the years.

The nexus of all of the Unohana's efforts to understand the spiritual world was a forbidden zone on most occasions. Rei herself rarely went there due to the obligations she held with the rest of the mansion and estate as an orphanage and place of rest for the injured and decommissioned soldiers. It was guarded, just like any other important room, at all times. Beyond the doors, however, was an arcane area that seemed removed from the rest of the mansion all-together. Rei and Hoji approached the door, locked and holding back a dangerous aura, together.

"You put Shin back there?" Hoji asked. "What for?"

"The spiritual concentration" Rei began "or reiatsu is higher there than any part of the countryside. It's the best place to bring someone back to life, if that is at all possible."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. The guards parted their way from the doors as Rei opened them. Even they had no desire to bear witness to the contents of what they guarded. Rei opened a gate to darkness, it seemed. Whatever room was beyond, Hoji couldn't see it through a thick mask of darkness.

"Stay close" Rei said. She entered the darkness, disappearing as if swallowed by a thick, black mist.

"Hey, wait up!" Hoji said. He entered the darkness as well and stopped mid-step.

_Holy hell_ Hoji thought. _My heart, my chest, my legs....this is weird. I'm stunned with pure fear! This place is like stepping into the realm of Hell!_

"Come" Rei said. Hoji heard her somewhere nearby but couldn't see her. As he looked around, he realized that he couldn't even see past his abs. **It was too dark, and the darkness was too thick.**

"What are we walking toward?" Hoji asked.

"A spiritual field" Rei said. "What you're walking through right now is a lingering of preserved reiatsu from roughly **a hundred dead Hollows.**"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed in fear. "That explains why I feel like the air is trying to _kill_ me! How is this the best place for Shin to rest?"

"That feeling" Rei explained "is not simply one of fear. It is one of healing. The lingering reiatsu is forcing its way into your body to repair the injured reiatsu that you are composed of. It feels strange because it is technically a conglomeration of entities that are fusing with your body and soul, becoming a part of you. A collection of discontinuous beasts, mindless and dumb, allowing their bodies to be breathed like air."

"That's sick" Hoji said. Suddenly, he was hit with a blast of white and jolted forward. He ran into Rei and fell backwards. Half of his body scrambled within the pure darkness while the other half tried to scramble back out. He got a grip on the floor and stood up to look around. Before him was a walled room with a roof, like a small royal abode. It was surrounded by an elevated floor and connected by four separate walkways that led over the black mist that gathered on the ground. Hoji looked up but could see only darkness. He tried to feel the wind of nature blowing, as even through the thick darkness he could hear the wind rustling leaves from outside, but he felt nothing.

"Are we inside right now?" Hoji asked.

"Yes" Rei answered. She had already gone further ahead and was at the entrance to the house. Hoji rushed up and followed her as she went in. Hoji entered the room and looked about as Rei shut the door.

There were scrolls hung everywhere. The very interior of the building seemed to be made of well-preserved scrolls that supported the roof and held fast to the floor. Whole rows were scrolls of incantations that exuded a powerful light. Others were charts, writings, drawings, notes, information; a whole house of pure knowledge. In the center there was an arrangement of tables. From the ground Hoji could tell what shape they were placed in mind for: a Madala, an eternal symbol of power. On each outer table he could see something resting. On the closest one, a sword that held a terribly powerful aura. It was Shikei. On another outer table, Shin's clothes were fully repaired and folded well. On the table across from the clothes Hoji saw a scroll that was rolled out that was pulsing with its own energy. Then, across from Shikei, Hoji saw Shin lying in rest with his back firm to the table.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "He looks like he's doing okay. I'm...shocked, honestly."

"His condition was critical" Rei said "but this way he'll be able to recover in virtually no time at all."

"I'm actually surprised that Hollows aren't attracted to _this_ place" Hoji said. "I mean, Tch! There's enough energy here for a Hollow to eat so that he'd never have to eat again, right?"

"No quite" Rei said. "Hollows do eat other Hollows on rare occasion, but for a different reason than simple hunger. Hollows eat human souls and shinigami to fill the void of despair in their hearts that made them into monsters. Eventually, they lose sight of ailing their sorrow and focus only on consuming, becoming mindless and ferocious beasts hellbent on nothing but finding their next potential meal. At that point, Hollows start to eat other Hollows, constantly adding to their own spiritual bodies, until a Gillian is formed." The image of a Gillian came into Hoji's mind at once. The terrible, huge being that Shin had once slain.

_Those things_ Hoji thought _are a bunch of Hollows put together? Some kind of super giant-Hollow?_

"Gillians are truly mindless" Rei explained. "They simply exist somewhere in Hueco Mundo, removed from the normal environment of Hollows, totally numb and devoid of all thought. They are, however, very powerful. As they are the conglomeration of hundreds of different Hollows, their consciousness is a stream of chaos and incoherence. However, some Gillians can exist with a specific personality, a very dominating drive left as a remnant from one of the Hollows that went into its forming, and gain a minor degree of consciousness. They then eat other Gillians and ascend to the rank of the Adjuchas, ascended Hollows that take a more beastly form than regular Hollows. The Adjuchas exist in a constant struggle for survival, for if one goes to long without devouring another of its kind with substantial spiritual energy, it permenantly devolves back into a Gillian."

"And just how did you figure all that out?" Hoji asked.

"You've seen a Gillian before, correct?" Rei asked. Hoji nodded. "They were giants wearing pitch black with bone-white faces and long, pointed noses."

"It was just one, but yeah" Hoji said. "Aren't they rare, though? It'd be strange for a Gillian to make its way on its own to this world if it has no mind."

"But what about an Adjuchas?" Rei said. Hoji was hit with realization. "The Gillian you and Shin encountered may very well have been an Adjuchas that went too long without eating other Hollows. Adjuchas are a rarity, to be certain, but not as much as their ascended forms."

"Wait a sec" Hoji exclaimed. "When do Hollows stop growing, exactly? More importantly than that, how does this all relate to Shin, exactly? What is this room? Explain it clearly! I ain't all that smart!" Rei stared Hoji down for a moment, reading his animal-like panic, and nodded to calm him down.

"The darkness outside" Rei explained "is what was once a Gillian." Hoji gasped. He turned to the door and sensed the presence on the other side, like a stranger was waiting outside that door for him. "This room is where my father and my mother brought Hollows to research. How they thought, how they moved, what they were made of, and so on. Upon researching and interrogating an Adjuchas, they spent too much time and it reverted into a giant Gillian. It nearly leveled the manor back then, but my father managed to destroy it and seal its reiatsu into this area of the manor. The Gillian continued to exist, however, and would devour the Hollows that wandered into its mist-like body. It still lives, in a way, as a huge collection of discontinuous parts. It is the mist now. _**La Niebla.**_ It's energies are attracted to Shin, but it isn't powerful enough to consume him. Instead, it becomes a part of him, as an instinct, taking shelter in a superior being."

Hoji walked around the tables and stood at Shin's side. He looked down at his friend's face. Hoji shivered at the look of it, for there was no struggle or strain or emotion in Shin save for a painless sort of peace that relaxed all of his body. His ribs had been set, his wounds all closed up and the black patches of his skin were shrunken down into scars of red.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "So now he's eating Hollows in his sleep...." Rei nodded. Hoji smirked. "As expected of a man like Shin. He's not the type to let something like Death do him in...."

"Indeed" Rei agreed. "There is nothing remaining to do here. Even when he wakes, he will be unable to act too much. We must let him rest until he recovers on his own, and he will. I shall monitor his progress daily as a part of my own research."

"So why did you bring me here, then?" Hoji asked.

"I feel it would be wrong" Rei said with a smile "to leave Shin's friends in the dark as to what was happening to him." Hoji broke a grin out of his arrogant smirk and started a timid laugh. Even with all the darkness and pressing power around him, in such trying times he saw his strongest friend pulling through. To see a man so close to death, and to carry him across the field of battle with no hope of his recovery, and then to hear that he would be fighting before he even knew what had happened; indeed, Hoji could do nothing but laugh in his joy. To know Shin was truly immortal was the best news he'd ever heard.

* * *

Gisei-shigai: Fake Corpse

La Niebla (Spanish): The Mist/Fog


	99. Walk in the Rain

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me.

Just for now, all references to Cowboy Bebop belong to Sunrise and the affiliated people. Thank you.

* * *

A hard rain. A soft rain. The sky was dark and the droplets fell. The city streets began to soak with the falling sky. The hard stone-paved streets ran with the fresh rain into the grated gutters under each curb. The earthen brown of all the houses and the tarred black of their roofs drained the color from the already dim, gray sky. Light was sealed behind the dark clouds, a somber scene. One place in the city still stood out. In the towny expanse of houses and cobblestone streets, one modern bastion seemed to stand apart from the rest.

The chapel, glistening with its own aura in the rain, as holy as it wanted to be. Its perfectly smooth walls from outside were white and sanctified. A tall steeple seemed to scrape the very sky as it met all welcomed parishioners with its high-borne golden cross. Even in the rain this one place shone like a sun and cast shadows into all the alleys that led to it. It laid at the crest of a hill paved over with a myriad of stones. A walkway of stairs was widened from the base of the slope up to the wide wooden arch that welcomed all men in with doors that never closed.

From the dark alleys of the buildings nearby came a soul sprinting under the cloak of the shadows. He ran through the darkness and stopped at the edge of the church's basking light. Behind him came another man, brandishing anger in the form of a knife. With a monstrous growl he descended upon the other and was overtaken in an instant by the sheer power and spectacle of his enemy's power. The man with the knife had his weapon stolen and used against him, stabbed deep into his chest and with such force to push him clear back into the shadows once again. Then entered the victor, a man who had overcome the darkness, yet still wore it over his body as a shroud.

A proud man who knew his power and boastfully wore a long coat of pure black in the light of the mighty, holy pillar. A black leather coat that covered his arms and flowed down his back. Pants hemmed close to his legs and hard leather shoes bound up with wet laces. A black cotton shirt under the coat without any print or pattern but with a heart-side chest pocket. Around his waist was latched a leather belt and equipped to that belt was a sword in a black scabbard. **Its hand-guard was shaped like a skull, vertical with the hilt.** The man with black hair and worn face looked up to the height of the church and heard its bells, heavenly signals to his arrival, and the doors opened. With a sigh the man stepped forward and began his slow ascent to the welcoming archway of the holy ground.

There was no rain inside the church. It was a safe-house from the sin and darkness of the outside world. But even here there were shadows. The light from outside was only a mask hiding the true darkness within. More darkness was hidden under the rows of pews and behind the stone columns that lined either side of the holy hall to support the upper story of the room. The man in black walked forward, out of the rain and into the suspicious dark, down a row of light that shone in from the high glass window behind the altar. He took careful steps, hearing his shoes hit the floor, but even they were muted out by a consuming presence of sound. As he looked around, many more men dressed in black coats with black shades and short-cut hair rose up form the shadows, all holding their hands together with swords sheathed at their hips.

"What a welcome reception" said the man. He turned to the altar with a grin and watched as another shadow slowly rose up from the darkness, one with long black hair hiding its face. "You plan quite the party, **Netami**." The hair slid away from the man's face revealing a murderous orange eye. He grinned back and brushed his bangs all to one side, letting them fall back across his face lazily.

"It's the best I could do on short notice" Netami said "but I hope you find it fitting, **Shin Kenpachi.**" The men standing in the shadows moved out and held their swords as they crept in slowly. Those in the balcony level drew their swords and hopped up onto the stone railing. Shin looked around and saw himself well surrounded, but they hadn't yet made the move to attack.

"What good will killing me do?" Shin asked. "You have what you want, don't you?"

"One life for another" Netami said. "That seems fair, doesn't it?" From the shadows at the side of the pews a door was thrown open. Two men walked out holding the arms of a woman in white. She struggled against them as they forced her to walk forward. Shin turned and saw her, dressed in a gown of white with fair and maidenly skin. Her black hair was parted down the middle and came down at the back of her neck in sharp curls. She caught sight of him and was stopped by her forced escort.

"Shin!" she shouted. "What are you doing here?" Shin turned back to Netami. The murderous man was grinning.

"Let her go" Netami said. The men obeyed and forced her away as they drew their swords.

"Shin, run!" she called. "Don't fight! You can't win under these conditions!" Shin looked down at his hand. It was not moving, not shaking from fear or from tension or excitement. He took a breath and took the grip of his sword. "You mustn't fight, Shin!" she called again. "What will your death accomplish?"

"Perhaps nothing" Shin said. "But, then again, I don't plan on dying." Shin drew his sword and swung it to point toward Netami. The men all leaped forward to attack at once with their swords overhead and wound at their sides. Shin uttered a swift, mute incantation and swung his sword in a full-arc swing at the ground. A huge blast of power blew out from Shin's feet and blasted the airborne men away. Shin dashed forward as the gust continued and stabbed a sure-footed man through his chest. Then, when the wind stopped, Shin turned and blocked four downswings at once. He was pinned in place, with his back to Netami, and both hands holding his sword against four others.

"The syndicate does not tolerate rogues like us, Shin" Netami said. "You should have done the right thing and confessed. Now they want you back, dead or alive, and I happen to know how you hate to be taken anywhere alive."

"Screw the syndicate" Shin said. He stepped back, dropped his guard and let the swords follow through onto the ground. With a swift motion, Shin cut two of the men in the chest before they could retreat. He finished them both with one shoulder-to-hip slice each, then turned and blocked an incoming swing from another man. Shin spun the man's sword away with one hand, growled some words, and held out an open palm. The man was stunned with his mouth dropped wide open and his body slowly numbing itself. Shin cut his throat with such power that he spun in place before landing. Then Shin made a blind swing in a turn around and cut a man's legs. Blood started to surround him, dark and flowing like a deep, liquid shadow, staining the holy ground he fought in. "I don't care about that crap anymore, Netami! You can go barking to them like a dog, but I'm not like you..." Shin turned and saw Netami still standing, watching the fight, with his sword unsheathed and on top of the altar. **"I'm a monster!"** Shin kept fighting under the glaring apathy of Netami, thinning the guards down to nearly nothing while the concerned vision of Rei stood in the corner away from the battle, watching Shin slaughter left and right with glee.

* * *

The rain poured outside the church. The streets were a rush of running water. It seemed like a deluge that would never end. A holy cascade of rain from an eternally dark sky to flow through the dark streets and bring a cleansing light. But the shadows were thick and powerful. The rain only traveled through them, like a river in a cave, bringing no light but instead the sound of shallow rushing water. At the peak of the holy ground, where the rain fell from, the first place it hit but the last place it could reach, the rain continued to flow out from the awnings of the church roof and invaded the bell tower as it trickled down to the mossy floor far down below. Inside, a rain of blood continued to fall as Shin Kenpachi fought for his life in an endless battle against a constant horde of sword-wielding men.

To Shin, the simplicity calmed him. It was as if the splatter of blood and the echoing drops of dark red that fell into the gathering puddles was as natural as the rain outside, and in his fervent fighting Shin found a certain peace. What was a slaughter to others was, to him, a blessed practice. He swung his sword as if it weren't there, as if he was merely swinging his arm to the orchestral rhythm of a divine, natural symphony. The men around him were instruments for his opera, all played by the edge of his careful bow. A symphony of massacre. Soon the men stopped coming and the battle had ended, leaving Shin half-entranced by the song he had strung together with only one foe remaining.

"You and I" Netami said as he picked up his sword and gazed down its edge "are men that this world does not appreciate."

"Oh?" Shin said.

"We are fanatics" Netami continued "for war, war that the people don't want. We appreciate our duties far too much, and we expect honor for it. Honor for pointless blood. Hmph." Netami started down the hall, toward Shin. He took his sword in his right hand, reverse grip, with the blade pointing out from his arm. "Tell me, Shin. Do you remember where we went wrong?"

"I can't recall ever being wrong" Shin said. "So far, all the choices I've made have been right enough to keep me alive. That's more than I can say for some others..." Netami smirked and held up his sword in a fist. He spun the blade around and lowered his grip on the handle. Then he took the sword high on the hilt with his left hand and turned his right hand over as he positioned the blade aiming at Shin from his shoulder. Shin took a step back and held his sword up in his right hand, facing Netami with only his blade and a single arm of power.

"What will you do for the dead?" Netami asked.

"Probably nothing" Shin said.

"What will you do for the living?" Netami asked. Shin glanced back at Rei, standing in the doorway far away from the carnage with her hand to her chest.

"Probably...just let them keep living" Shin answered.

"So where will you go?" Netami asked.

"Anywhere" Shin said "without you." Shin dashed forward and swung into Netami's block. Netami pushed him back and charged in, swinging his sword down with such force that the pool of blood they fought over rippled away and cleared a bare spot on the stone floor. The cracks were quickly filled by blood and the floor was once again covered as the two men stood against each other in a stalemate. "As long as I have the power to move, **I will keep moving.**" Shin kicked his knee into Netami's side and parted their blades. Netami swung down again, following through with his sword, but Shin evaded and came in from the side with a powerful slash. Netami rolled under it, dirtying his coat with blood, and ran forward again with a stab. Shin leaned away from the stab and tried to counter, but Netami's sword was too long and each thrust required Shin to retreat a step to avoid. Shin managed to parry one of Netami's stabs and rushed in to try and attack. Netami held their swords together and forced Shin to get both his hands on his hilt again. As their blades met and pushed against each other, blade on blade, Shin and Netami held fast their ground with their shoes sole-deep in the pool of blood. Rei watched no longer, taking a final farewell glance over her shoulder as she ran out into the rain to escape.

Shin grinned. "Now we can fight" Shin said. He pushed his sword further ahead by pushing his shoulder into the blunt edge of the blade. Netami slid back across the soaking wet floor and tripped over a fallen body. As he fell he kept his guard up and backflipped to his feet again before Shin could attack. Shin stood dead-center of the aisle of pews, in the middle of a bare spot where the blood had all been pushed away, shining in the light. In his hands he held a glorious weapon, a mighty scythe with a cross-like pattern. The blade was as straight and long as the arm of a holy cross, ending in a flat edge like a razor ax. Shin held his weapon behind his back, hands held at low and mid positions on the shaft, and swung it forward. With a clashing sound the metal arms bent, and reformed the holy cross into the shape of a swastika with each arm bent toward the next at perfect 90 degree angles.

Shin's lips moved in announcement with a grin, but no sound came from them. He started spinning his mighty weapon over his head and the blood was all blown into the dark shadows under the pews and behind the pillars. The bodies disappeared completely, leaving Shin and Netami alone within the church. Shin stopped his scythe and pointed the head notch at Netami. "So tell me, even if I let you kill me, what difference will it make to you?" Netami's humor left him and a scowl replaced his arrogant smirk.

"To erase you" Netami said "is the only way to rid myself of the memories."

"What memories?" Shin asked.

"The ones that made me like you!" Netami shouted. He dashed forward and hit Shin's scythe down with his sword. Still rushing forward, with his blade behind him, Netami swung up from the floor, leading a trail of blood from the tip of his sword. Shin spun around to the other side of his scythe's shaft to dodge it and rammed into Netami's side. Netami staggered away and brought his guard up. Shin's scythe came swinging in from the side, then quickly spun around to the other side, faster than even a sword would have gone, and locked Netami in place with a rapid flurry of swings. Shin silently uttered another phrase as he spun his scythe after each hit, letting the deflection carry it in a new direction which he followed through.

"Are you that weak?" Shin asked. "The only way you can forget your past is to kill it?"

"You are something that I should have never known!" Netami said. He finally countered by deflecting Shin's scythe to bounce against the floor and lose its momentum. Then he leaned forward and cut Shin's shoulder with a running stab. Shin shrank to the side before Netami could follow through and swing through Shin's body from the point of contact. "If I'd never met you...If I'd never met you!" Netami kept coming, in a blind rage, chopping and swinging wildly into Shin's guard. Shin caught Netami's sword in the head notch of his scythe and twisted to pull the sword away and lead Netami around by it, as if he couldn't detach himself from the hilt. "My life would be exactly as I want it to be if I'd never met you!"

"You were bound to meet me" Shin said. "That's just the kind of luck you seem to have." Shin jerked his scythe to the side and pulled Netami's sword right out of his hands. Netami was stunned as Shin took his scythe blade to his neck. "You and I are similar, I'll acknowledge that. We blindly seek power. The syndicate promised you that power the same as me, but when I saw a better way to get it I was shunned. The only reason you bothered to go with me was to become powerful. So in the end, whether you and I were destined to meet or not isn't the question. **In seeking power, eventually we would have to fight each other to grasp the power the other person holds.**" Shin hit the shaft and blade of his scythe against Netami's neck and threw him to the side. His skin was too tough, his body to thick, to cut with such a lack of power, but the blow to his pride on being used so easily was a wound cut deep. "If you were a different man, who didn't care about power, then we may never meet. However..." Shin looked up at the stained glass behind the altar. A brighter light started to shine in and his senses seemed to return from the warring purgatory they had been tossed into.

The rain outside had stopped and light returned from behind the oppressing clouds. Shin glanced down at Netami and then jumped from the floor to the upper level railing.

"I'll show you my dream of power" Shin said. "Follow me." Netami picked up his sword and glared at Shin. He jumped to the opposite side and made a run for the steeple door. Shin went for the same door and they ran up together, both bound for the same bell-tower where their fight would conclude.

* * *

In the streets, the rain had stopped. The water ran loudly through the open grated gutters that were on every curb. The houses had lost their demure hue and resumed a brighter, more lively earthen color. Rei ran through such streets, where the darkness hid from the light high in the sky behind thin and moving clouds, searching for a way to exit the mad place. The roaring of a monster started to come from ahead and Rei attempted to double back. She found herself surrounded by the guterral noise of a monster growling from all directions. From the shadows, from the sky, and even from the ground that shook with such a lowing roar. She heard it approaching from all corners, faster and faster, and turned around to the way she was heading before. From out of a dark alley, a man in a long black coat with a round helmet and glossy visor sped out **riding a two-wheeled mechanism of chrome pipes and strong metal pillars. ** He stopped and lowed the roar of his autonomous steed to a lowing purr beside Rei. He was a large man, taller than any man should be, and offered Rei a ride with a quick tilt of his head. Rei nodded and climbed up behind him, wrapping her arms around his broad waist to keep from falling off, and the man cranked the throttle to speed down the street once more.

Up on the roof of the church, the first place where the rain had stopped falling and the first place where the bright sun light had hit, Netami and Shin met. Shin had taken a route that led him to the end of the church rood opposite the bell tower where Netami had come from.

"Your dream?" Netami asked. "Is a man like you capable of dreaming anything other than blood and murder?" Shin pointed up to the sky, to its shining center, the sun.

"One day" Shin said "such a power will be mine that shall **destroy even the light of the sun and make it black.** That is my dream, to conquer light itself with my power."

"Hmph" Netami scoffed. "Such fantasy. I never thought a man as serious as you would be into such poetic thinking. Are you really the man I once fought?"

"You are still fighting me" Shin said. He armed himself with a quick spinning of his scythe and let Netami charge on him. The precarious battle on the foot-wide flat of the church's roof between the steep sloping broke out with a banging clash of metal. Netami's offense was relentless as it was enraged. He swung his sword with both hands but followed through on contact with only his left. Shin spun his scythe to block and stopped it from moving when Netami tried to power it away. Shin managed to tap Netami's sword in mid-swing and throw his balance off. The power through the swing went to Netami's feet and nearly forced him off the precarious ledge he was fighting on. Netami stepped back rapidly while Shin powered forward, swing his scythe and following each swing through to keep the weapon's momentum constant. Netami reached the end of the roof and jumped up onto the wall of the bell tower. He jumped over Shin with his sword held in a downswing position. Shin swung up at him, deflecting his blow and forcing him to fly even further along the flat line they had to walk. Netami landed gracefully and let his bangs flow down to hide his face. He charged forward again, thrusting and forcing Shin to go off balance to avoid his sword.

Shin used the notch at the bottom of his scythe shaft to grab Netami's ankle and force him to trip. Netami, however, just kicked Shin's scythe and forced him off balance. Shin dove off the side and swung his scythe into the side of the church roof. His momentum carried him into a swing back onto the narrow ledge with scythe still in hands as Netami approached with yet more power in his swings. He swiped his sword through the air, hardly reaching Shin's block in some swings, but still he kept up his blind, powerful offense. Each hit jolted Shin's scythe and forced him to regather his grip to keep his scythe from spinning clear out of control. Netami prepared a shoulder-aimed stab. He slid forward with a lunge and stabbed past Shin's scythe. His blade sank just into Shin's stomach, enough to cut into the muscle. Shin coughed at the pain and wound back his scythe for a counter attack. He swung hard and heavy into Netami's neck with all the intent to kill that had rushed his mind to such power before, but his attack did nothing. It hit against Netami's neck like a statue and shook Shin's body off balance.

"What power are you trying to find?" Netami asked. Shin regained his balance and slid back, holding his scythe out like a spear and waiting for Netami to attack. "You're not willing to go into the true realm of monsters, are you? Are you willing to take innocent, harmless life in order to further your own goals?"

"What kind of power is that?" Shin asked in a harsh growl. "The path of cowards only leads to a cowards level of power. Why would I want that?"

"Are you so certain about that?" Netami asked. "Such cowards, as you call them, are more powerful than you already."

"Then it's useless" Shin said. "I'll find that kind of power and destroy it!" Shin wound back his scythe, stepped forward and swung hard. Netami caught the blade right at its tip and held it. His hand started bleeding. He peered with one eye out of the shadows that his bangs cast over his face.

"Are you scared of true power?" Netami asked. "Or is it monsters that you fear more? Which is it? Those that can gain power faster than you ever will, the _true_ monsters, or the power that they gain?"

"I don't fear the dead" Shin said. He pushed his scythe even harder, twisting his torso at his hips while keeping his feet heavy on the rooftop. "I only fear that I won't be able to find strength fast enough. Those that are strong will surely start to avoid me when they discover my intentions. However, keeping nothing but weaklings around is itself a consequence. My fear is limited to death and the lack of power."

"Then go out" Netami said, "and seek power. Seek a way to obtain that power faster than anyone else, and damn the expense!" The curtains of black hair parted from Netami's face **revealing a bone-white skull staring at Shin with glowing red eyes.** Shin was stunned. "Go, Shin Kenpachi, and find a power that succeeds even that of Death itself!" The beast threw Shin from the roof. After tumbling against the awning, Shin let go of his scythe to slowly fall through the air. He saw, on the roof, the figure cloaked in shadows regain his face and smile down at him. An expectant, warring smile. He could tell what the message truly was: Become powerful, Shin, to defeat me. To defeat one as powerful as Netami, Shin's own mind had called him into his dreams to tell him the truth about his power. It was enough, but it wasn't. As men they are classless, they are separate in all possible means. However, as warriors, their power is mismatched. Netami has more power, more strength and the capacity to obtain more power using whatever evil means possible. In the end, power was the only answer.

The sky lit up in a great, mute flash of light and fire. Shin saw as the roof of the church exploded in a great plume of fire, taking with it Netami's dark form. Shin fell down and down, almost endlessly to the street at the bottom of the holy hill. He looked to the side where his scythe fell beside him, spinning through the air as if on a natural whim to spin. Then, far off behind the scythe, speeding through the street, Shin saw a ghostly being riding away on a machine that defied definition carrying on his back a huge, wide cylinder with a smoking top. On its side were white letters reading 'R.E.I.'. Shin could see what it was, even through its helmet's visor. He looked into the dark eyes of Shikei and felt an eerie coldness staring back...

Then things went dark. Shin's dream seemed to end, but his sleep did not. As his body recovered, Shin's mind continued to race in preparation for the next dream to sharpen Shin's fighting mind as he slept. Even in sleep he found no peace, but in fighting Shin felt like he was in a dream. An endless cycle, like that of the rain.


	100. Beast of Pride 1

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me.

* * *

Shin was comatose...again. Therefore, his group of merry marauders was stayed for the time being under the protective political shelter of Rei Unohana, the worldwide influential Hollow expert and researcher. Of Shin's infamous band of fellows, two were well. Jin had mostly recovered, though was undergoing a voluntary separation from his swords so his own reiatsu could readjust itself and solidify his body again, and moved about the mansion at his leisure. When he chose to sleep, he did so in the special healing spring waters with a heavy wooden weight tied under his chin to keep him from slipping under and drowning in the night. The other man yet to rise, but conscious none the less, was Suichi. Freed from his own technique, he let himself wake but was restricted in moving again as his body had been too greatly damaged and his energy to greatly exhausted during his fight.

Hoji was the only freely mobile envoy of Shin's usually solitary presence. He carries his sword with him and checked it multiple times each day to see if the blade had regrown yet. It was still shattered with barely any metal of the blade remaining out of the handle, no matter how many times he checked. Still, the ordeal of life continued alone for him as he trained his body and fought with a weighted wooden sword one of the grateful soldiers owned as a souvenir from his services previous to joining the manor. Hoji took extreme steps to keep his form sharp and his body trained. He swung a hundred swings of each kind as a warm up each day, then practiced actual combat against shadow opponents using the woefully impractical training stick. Despite its weight, Hoji managed to swing it with proper power each time, with each swing being lethal to whatever imposing target Hoji seemed to face down at the time.

And when his sword would fail him, or he would fail the sword, a spectacle would begin. Hoji would take his wild Kaijuuryuu stance and make a series of amazingly acrobatic attacks that seemed to, at least, imitate proper impact upon his imaginary opponent. Hoji's vision of battle was one where he seemed to lose constantly, as more than once he would simply stop mid-swing, breathe for a moment and then take his sword back up as if he hadn't started fighting at all yet. It was bizarre thing to watch each day for many of the more peaceful and duteous men and women of the manor, and it didn't help that Hoji would practice where and whenever it seemed to strike him as a favorable activity. In the halls, in the garden, on the roof, in the front court, even in his own room, fights within his mind seemed to spring up at every possible opportunity. By the end of each day Hoji was so soaked with sweat that he had to sleep in his fundoshi and let his regular kimono dry over a stick in his room.

After a few days, Hoji seemed to become more accustomed to the weight of the practice sword he had taken up than Shin's absence. He walked halls aimlessly, lost in thought, and then would suddenly burst into hour-long training runs. His physical health seemed to improve the more his apparent mental and emotional health seemed to decline. However, as Hoji was sly and easily lost within the large estate, Rei was never able to meet with him after they left Shin's private recovery wing. Their paths happened to intsersect one day as Hoji came prowling on his knuckles and toes around a corner and saw Rei from the feet up. He pushed himself up to his feet and stood his ground.

"Hello, Hoji" Rei greeted.

"Hi" Hoji greeted back. "Uh, how's Shin?"

"He's still recovering" Rei said. "His body is dangerous. It will take some time."

"Right, right" Hoji said. "I guess, among all of us, I get off the easiest with a wind aura, right?"

"Shin's aura is something he must learn to control" Rei said "if he wishes to properly use it. Perhaps more training between the two of you is in order now."

"Unless he trains in his dreams" Hoji said, expressing a certain seriousness in the idea that Rei couldn't help but break a slight grin. She continued forward and seemed to lead Hoji down the halls to the front gate. "What's going on?" Hoji asked.

"I am taking an important visitor" Rei said.

"Oh" Hoji said, slinging his practice sword across his shoulders. "Well, in that case, I'll just go camp in the forest out of your way."

"Don't be foolish" Rei said. "I don't doubt that you could easily slay a Hollow if need be, but without your sword any affects of defeat you are able to inflict upon a strong enemy will be merely a subversion of their true intent. You won't kill anything with that piece of wood, and if you fight yourself to exhaustion unarmed then you'll only die without the honor of having your sword drawn in the last breaths of your battle." Hoji gulped. "You need not leave at the sight of company. It doesn't work that way here. I don't ask the soldiers or the injured or the deeply wounded to stay out of sight if someone who their region considers important comes by for something. Each life taken in here is something precious and to be looked upon in admiration."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, taking up an arrogant, animistic smile. "I've got plenty of worthy attributes to admire. I guess I'll stick around then, out of curiosity, and if you need a good-looking distraction I'll be withing a whistle's distance." Rei stared him down, trying to measure how serious he was, then turned without a single trace of response on her face. "Oi. Don't do that." Hoji said in low spirit. The great front gate slowly opened, and through its gap marched two flanks of shinigami with plated armor over their garb. Their kimonos were different. They had no sleeves, they ended just above the stomach to fully expose the midriff and the bottoms were short and open skirts. **Skirts.** Hoji noticed, with a punch-like impact, **all of the shinigami entering the estate were **_**beautiful, strong-looking women.**_ He shed a single tear but kept his face tense with a warrior's scowl. His lower lip quivered open and he hissed through his grit teeth a short and low "Yessssss."

"Welcome to the Unohana Manor" Rei greeted. She gave a deep, respectful bow, which Hoji saw with a gasp and widening of his eyes. He looked to the flanks of women, with wild hair and curvy, toned bodies all stepping their feet together with their arms at their sides. As they lowered themselves with an equal bow of respect, Hoji turned his head and grit his teeth.

_No_ he thought. _The me of this life has not yet earned the honor of seeing paradise manifest like this. I must be a stronger man, with a perfect mastery over my body, and a righteous unending discipline to achieve before I may take a sight of..._ Hoji broke. He turned and saw a whole row of women bowed down with low-cut, knot-bound kimono tops and **he saw, as if from the vault of heaven itself, endless beautiful valleys laid out before his own eyes.** Hoji began to cry and smile widely. _I AM WORTHY! I AM WORTHY TO SEE THIS!_ he exclaimed in racing, excited thought. The women all rose up at the same time while Hoji stood fast with his cheeks streamed with tears. One woman stepped out from the line, one whose sword was long and broad, sheathed behind her back, with a brilliant red tassel hanging off the pommel. She was a tall woman, just a bit taller than Hoji, and by and far not the tallest one present. She had wild brown hair tied by two thick bands over her shoulders, like a mantle of fur. Hoji noted the details of her face as well. She had two thick scars on her left cheek, just under her eye, seemed to bear a fang even with her mouth closed, and looked generally discouraging.

She was also angry. Her eyes were in constant furrow and her brow seemed to cast a shadow of thickness equal to that same perpetual anger over her green eyes. Hoji's smile faded as he looked into her eyes from the side. The swirling, berserk shine they had seemed all-too familiar to him. The entire muscular pattern of her face struck him as all-too similar in a way, and he soon pieced it together with a gasp. _This woman looks like **Shin**_ he thought.

"You are Rei Unohana" spoke the woman, a sultry and deep voice, a warrior's voice from the mouth of a woman indeed. Rei nodded and closed her eyes. "I am **Ami Mai.** I have come to ask of your terms. Will you accept our stay here?"

"Of course" Rei replied. "You are welcome here as long as you please. Let my home become a part of yours as you rebuild." The flank of women let out sounds of great joy and relief. They settled quickly at the sight of their leader who had turned her head to the red X of Hoji's forehead.

"Who are you?" she demanded of Hoji. The man stared into her jade-green eyes, shining and narrow with a fearless fury, and he grinned.

"**I'm the watchdog"** Hoji growled with a grin.

* * *

The women were of a small clan within a larger territory, and had all been driven out by the war. There's was the fiercest lot: they were the protectors and fighters, the soldiers and defenders of their clan's sacred land. When they lost it they lost all their honor and their place in their home, so they left all at once and sought shelter. At some point, via Rei's apparent network of outside contacts, they gained wind of Rei's estate being used as a refuge and struck a deal. They would seek new land and a home for their clan if they could only manage to rebuild what was left and summon the rest of the remnants from across the wide realm to join them. All the while they would count on Rei to help them train and become stronger so their next home would be better defended.

Across many lands and regions, they were known as _Musha-onna_, the Warrior Women. Their clan was exclusive to strong females. It was a part of their legacy to harness the inner strength of only the strongest, wildest, most beautifully strong women within the Spirit World to train the strongest woman and have her leave to find the strongest man. Obviously, nature would take course from there, and by their logic their clan would either be in possession of the strongest shinigami child born or be responsible indirectly for creating one. Obviously, one honor had a higher priority, and most of the men born of their methods were sent to live with their fathers instead.

During their first night of stay in the Unohana estate, Ami and her league of warrior women were ushered to their own private hall. A single room, long enough for all of them to fit side-by-side laying down, with enough beds and sheets to keep them as warm as they pleased. They were treated to a hot feast as well, all the same food that the rest of the manor would eat, served with calming tea to help them relax as they prepared themselves for their first night of rest in their recent, difficult times. The women, however, were not the type to relax. In no time they were out, walking the halls, making themselves known to everyone nearby.

"This place is kind of shabby" one girl said to another as they walked through the halls.

"I know" she replied. "Our hall in Shan-Va-Nal was at least twice as big as this place, including that orphanage wing."

"Those poor kids" the first girl cooed. "Raised without parents to teach them how to fight. What'll they do if a Hollow comes and attacks? Or worse, an enemy shinigami?"

"They'd just scream and die" she replied coldly. "Brats. If they aren't strong then let them suffer for it. That trauma of facing down an inevitable end is usually what forces most kids to manifest their swords early on, you know." As the two tall, toned and very threatening women walked through the halls, those within earshot of their rather harshly worded conversation chose to wait for them to pass before they went into the hallway themselves. It had barely been a day since they arrived and already their fearsome presence seemed to dominate the halls of the estate. Sadly, the only one who could stand up to their intimidating presence was doting on them lustfully at every turn.

The two girls encountered Hoji in the hall as he made his evening course through the halls of the manor, shirtless and glistening with sweat.

"Evening, girls" he greeted. The girls just shot him an uninterested look, though he ignored it with his own deafening arrogance. "Tch, it's a nice night, ain't it?" he asked casually.

"Who are you really?" one of the girls asked. "I mean, why are you here?"

Hoji shrugged slyly. "Here seems like the place to be."

"No, out there is" the other girl protested. "Out there, in the thick fires of war, is the 'place to be' for warriors like us. Out there, on the unknown stretch of land where Hollows meet and prey on the weak, that's the place to be. This place, this haven for weaklings and cowards, is the _worst_ place to be right now!"

"...it's a phrase" Hoji said, taken aback by her hot protest. "Besides, no one is keeping you here against your will, are they? I bet your leader would be thrilled to hear you say all that crap and she'd probably cheer you on if you left to fight."

"What do you know?" she shouted. She leaned in angrily and pressed against an unmoving, undaunted Hoji. "You weren't driven out of your only home in a blaze of fire and bloodshed, **were you?**"

"Nope" Hoji bluntly said. The girl drew away, scoffed and pushed past him. Her comrade followed her, ignoring Hoji for the most part, and both left him alone in the hall. When they were out of sight Hoji stomped and snapped his fingers.

"Damn!" he exclaimed. "What happened? I was just trying to be casual and flirt. Damn, crazy, berserker chicks. I need to think more on their level if I want to get anywhere..." Hoji looked up and started running through the halls. With no sense of direction or position within the manor to guide him, Hoji left his path in the trust of his animal instincts and sought out the scent of women. It wasn't long until he found one, but it wasn't as prime a specimen as he had been looking for. It was Natsumo, of all people, carrying a bundle of clothes topped with armor.

"Evening" Hoji said. Ignoring her struggle, he ran past her.

"Hold it!" she shouted. "Help me out here, please!" Hoji slumped his shoulders but obliged. A women was calling on him for help. What man would he be to say no? He and Natsumo, with Natsumo leading him very close by, unloaded the loose and flowing new robes off at the women's hall and took their armor into the barracks to be placed under lock and key using special kido protection to keep it safe. Once Natsumo made sure the locks were secured, she turned to Hoji and gave him a short bow.

"Thank you for the help, Araijin" she said. "I'm sorry if I kept you from anything...urgent."

"Not really" Hoji said. "Just trying to hit on those new girls." His bluntness almost left a visible mark of impact on Natsumo's maidenly pride.

"W-watch that mouth of yours!" she chided. "These women aren't lightweights by any means! They could easily pick you up and _throw_ you out of the estate, even if you were in prime condition to fight! Your sword is still broken, isn't it?" Hoji checked. The blade still hadn't grown, for some reason, and forced Hoji to scowl and slam it back into its sheathe. Natsumo lowered her anger when she saw Hoji's eyes flare up. "Take it easy, Araijin. It's never an easy process to regrow one's sword once it breaks. It takes an extreme concentration and narrow mind to focus the energy necessary. Just be patient with it."

"Tch" he scoffed. "Easy for you to say. I'm the only one awake right now that can fight. You know if Jin starts swinging his arms his instincts are going to make him flip the hell out. Suichi's not getting better as fast as I'd like, either. If someone comes for Shin, I'm the only real defense he's got! As a warrior, I at least have the pride to defend my friends when they can't do so themselves, but what can I do with a **useless piece of broken metal?**" Hoji stomped the floor in anger, then sighed and calmed himself down. Natsumo looked aside to not draw her own notice to his rage and adjusted her glasses above her light blush.

"Perhaps your just stressed" she said. "Have you tried...dealing with that?"

"That's what I'd do" Hoji began "if I could get one of these Amazon chicks **into bed with me!**" Natsumo's face went to full blush, but the hue was more akin to a rage-induced one than shame. She punched Hoji square in his gut and stunned him. She did a heel-face turn and left the room. Only when she was out of sight did Hoji exhale sharply and buckle over to clutch his stomach, being the prideful idiot that he was...

* * *

The next day followed all of its regular patterns. Hoji went to the garden and began his arduous, extreme warm-up session for training. 100 swings with all the basic swings. Vertical, left-side, right-side, shoulder to hip in both directions, stabs and 50 one handed horizontal in alternating hands. This time, however, his audience was not the fearful passersby or the soldiers and guards off duty that awed with respect and fear for the man. A small group of the warrior women had gathered and sat in the shade of the viewing deck to watch him.

"He's got a nice back" one girl said.

"I like his little hair-thing" another girl noted, she having her own very thick pigtail that she twirled in her hand as she admired.

"He's got a nice, ferocious look" another girl with a square jaw and too many muscles said. "I wonder if he'd have the same look in bed..."

"A man's fighting style" one skeptical girl began "contrasts his methods in bed, obviously. If he's this diligent, powerful and well-versed in fighting, well, that speaks for all kinds of things about how he'd be in _bed._" The girls snickered under their breath, unaware of just how well Hoji could hear. He smirked away from them and lowered his practice sword. He closed his eyes and drowned out all the worldly noise, hearing only the wind around and within. He secluded himself to a dark realm of thought and visualized an opponent. A man as tall as he with a head of black fire and a sword of frozen steel. A dark figure with deep, black eyes that stood out from the shadows in their darkness. Shin Kenpachi, the ideal opponent.

Hoji sprung forward and attacked, fighting his invisible foe. He kept Shin's style as ideal as he could. Fearless, powerful and precise. He swung to kill and didn't hesitate, but he didn't attack from behind. He would avoid a head-on fight and take on his opponent's sides as a weakness, work down their foundation and topple them from the top. It was a fight Hoji knew he couldn't win, but in such conditions he wasn't afraid to fight it. The girls watched him fighting a shadow and tried to read the same movements that Hoji did. They saw, very faintly, the outline of his enemy. A man wielding a sword, nothing more, who seemed too agile to follow at times. Their reading would vanish often and sometimes poses would reset when the shadow appeared again.

"Is he losing?" a girl asked.

"When you do this kind of training" the skeptical girl began "you visualize what your opponent does during a fight and follow through with your own responses. The idea is to learn to read an opponent's moves from the memories of what they looked like. However, doing so isn't usually as much of a physical affair as he's making it out to be..." Hoji was indeed acting out vividly. With his sword he jumped and rolled and went for whole short runs with his sword drawn back only to draw it back up and block with it. He'd fall to a knee, turn and take up his beginning stance often, signifying another loss on his part. "The fact that he's doing it so quickly is actually very impressive. He must have his opponent's every single move memorized right down to the smallest detail."

"But if that's true" the man-faced girl began "and he's losing that much, then he'd have died in a real battle long ago."

"Maybe it's an ally" another girl said. "Or an old master. Or a training partner that's not here. He doesn't have to visualize an enemy for it to work." The skeptic girl squinted her eyes and analyzed then man from afar. For all the exhaustion and apparent death he was experiencing in his practice, there wasn't a single shred of defeat of give to his glare. He looked undaunted, excited, **even satisfied to be coming out behind despite his best efforts.** It didn't sit right with her. She stood up and jumped across the garden immediately to meet him. Hoji had just taken his stance when she landed and was numb to the outside world. His vision of Shin had become more stable and clear as his concentration had gone so long uninterrupted by anything else.

"Hey!" shouted the girl. Hoji didn't hear. He dashed forward, sword over his head, and swung. When he stopped he had to take a knee in honor, for the sword was out of his hands post-swing and the vision he had was one of total loss. That unexpected turn forced him out of his training nirvana and back into reality. He turned and saw a vixen of a woman with long, thick hair in a silken white kimono covering her normal, tiny black garb. She held his sword at her side and visibly strained to keep it in her hand. "You look like you could use a training partner" she said with a smirk.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, cracking a grin of his own. "Fancy that. It seems I do! And I was just starting to have fun playing alone. Tch, well, if you're gonna force me to play with you, then I guess I'll just have to." She grinned and tossed the wooden sword away. It rolled itself to a stop under its own weight. She then drew her own sword, razor-sharp and thin with a flat edge and crescent-curved stabbing tip. Her handguard fell down in front of her fingers about halfway in three thin claws which were twisted and wound around to make the rest of the guard solid and interwoven to the blade. Hoji glanced at his sword. He drew it, held the still-broken blade to his face and then sheathed it. Then he took the sheathe out and tossed it to the side.

"I could use some unarmed practice" Hoji said. The girl got the meanest glare. She sheathed her sword and did the same, abandoning her weapon to take up an honorable stance against Hoji.

"Can you live with hurting a girl like me?" she asked as she took up her pose. Left arm forward with a fist and right arm back with an open palm. Her left leg was forward as well, leaving her body in profile to Hoji. Hoji took in a deep breath and focused on his own pose. He held his right arm forward with an open palm aimed right at his enemy, and his left arm was cocked back to his side with a tight fist, ready to punch. His legs weren't as slenderly spread and extended as his foe's, as he stood with them near and knees slightly bent. Hoji's face lost all emotion. The girl kept her vixen smirk.

"What's your name?" Hoji asked. "I feel obligated to know who I'm fighting."

"**Lora Rola**" she said. "And you, my masculine foe?"

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "Hoji. Enemies should go by a first-name basis, Lora." She seemed to agree. At once they fought and rushed in at each other. Lora cocked her left arm back before reaching Hoji and moved her right palm up to catch Hoji's blocking arm. Hoji grabbed her left arm with his open right hand, jerked her forward and smashed her face with his tensed fist in a fully-extended punch. The scene seemed to go on for too long as their clash slowed down the perceived time of the horrified audience. Then Hoji leaned into his fist and let go of her arm, pushing himself away with another semi-punch to her face. Lora slid on her back for a solid meter before flipping herself back onto her feet. Hoji landed on his hands and backflipped twice, landing the second time with one leg up and in pre-kick position, left arm framing the top of his face and right arm held out palm-up with a shaking fist of fury clenched.

"**If you feel like it, go ahead and call me a monster!"** Hoji lowed. His emotionless facade was broken. In that single punch all of his muscles had moved and powered his fist into Lora's face. He held nothing back. It was a full-body contact in the size of a simple fist. Lora's nose was broken, in simplest terms, and she was bleeding from the front of her gums. She could feel the blood warming up her chin and grinned to show her bent and bloodied front teeth.

"It's our duty to _kill_ monsters" Lora lowed. She struck her fighting pose as Hoji hopped back and reversed his, holding his fist-arm down rather than up and his framing arm back with a palm opened out to the side. His mighty pigtail billowed in the breeze as he prepared to fight one of the hotter chicks that he'd been eying down, all for the sake of his own repressed frustration...


	101. Beast of Pride 2

Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me.

* * *

Only one punch in and Lora was losing. Her nose was broken and blood continued to drip down her chin. Her teeth were even bent as Hoji's punch had dealt a nasty impact. Both standing, ready to fight. Once the wind stopped they charged into each other. Lora grabbed Hoji's arms and pressed forward, exposing her body from below. Hoji let her force his arms back but kept them straight and kicked her right between the ribs. Lora's push faltered for a moment and Hoji released his arms from her grip. He followed up with a quick uppercut and a rapid jabbing offense to Lora's face. She retreated with a jump backwards and swung her long leg in a wide, low arc, hitting Hoji as he rushed in to again attack before her defenses were fully up. He managed to guide himself back to his feet before tumbling too far and got up in time for Lora to dash at him with flat palms and tense arms.

Lora swung her arms with her hands guiding like blades while Hoji blocked each blow with both his arms, one bracing the other. As fast as she was, even with Hoji using both his arms to block he still seemed faster. Then Hoji huffed out loudly, blocked a blow and delivered an unseen kick to her stomach. Lora was knocked off her feet but gracefully managed to land and skid across the grass to a stop. Before Hoji had a chance to rush back in, Lora grabbed her broken nose between her index and middle finger and popped it back into place with a tug. She snorted out the clotted mucous and blood and tried to breathe right again. Hoji dashed forward and threw a strong right hook for her face. Lora blocked it but was pushed to the side by the sheer force of the attack. Hoji hopped off the ground and kicked his leg into her side as she drifted slowly through the air. With force being applied to two points at once Lora's body was thrown into a spin centered at her chests. As she was kicked off her feet yet again and as her head drifted down away from Hoji's punch her eyes drifted to the ground, barely catching a glimpse of Hoji's left arm coming in with a tight fist.

Now airborne from a stiff uppercut to the side of the face, Lora flipped and relaxed her body from the pain she felt. Hoji kicked away from her, a respectable distance and just far enough for her to recover from, and let her fall. She hit the ground face-first and didn't move. The dust kicked up from her stiff body hitting the dirt settled around her. Silence struck the grassy field. Already there was blood on the grass that was noticed at a distance. The girls watching from the deck of the manor were silent as they could be, all of them heavily analyzing the fight from afar.

_He's not holding back a single bit!_ one of the girls thought. _He's fighting for real. I don't think Lora realizes that yet! She's still trying to play with him, but it's taking all of her strength to do it!_ Lora started to get up, slowly as she was in anguishing pain. Her nose had bent in again. Before she pushed herself up fully she took her hand to it and tried fixing it again. Now she had the beginning of a bruise on the right side of her face and was lacking one of her front teeth. She glanced down when she was still only half-standing and saw it in the dirt, blood and spit around it. She glared up and saw Hoji waiting for her a short distance away, one arm fully extended forward with his hand casually open and palm facing away from her. With a smirk, Hoji beckoned her forward with the quick jerk of his wrist. Lora snarled and charged. She stopped just short of Hoji's reach and poised herself for a kick. Hoji stayed back. When Lora kicked Hoji instinctively leaned away but still got hit. The tip of her toes struck the tip of his nose, forcing him into a reflex dodge.

Hoji backflipped away, just as she predicted, and was caught as he came back to his feet in Lora's trap-offense. She punched so firmly into his gut that Hoji was lifted off his feet and all the air in his lungs emptied in a loud wheeze. Lora followed with a knee that sent Hoji even higher up and then, as Hoji slowly leveled in his drift near Lora's standing face-level, she leaned her body back and kicked Hoji as hard as she could, her leg ending parallel to the other while Hoji was sent over her head to the ground behind her. He landed on his chest and bounced, then grabbed the grass and skid to a stop to pant on all fours.

"Tch" he managed to scoff. Lora slowly lowered her leg and turned around with a quick heel-turn. She was smirking again, so haughty and proud but still glaring and patronizing with her eyes. All her suffering for that attack seemed justified to her, and Hoji felt a sense of defeat just from the venomous sneer she gave him. _It's not going down like that, chick_ Hoji thought. He gripped the grass and dug his fingers into the dirt a bit. He ground his toes as well. He was in a full pouncing position. _I'm strong! Even unarmed I'm powerful! Sure, you're full of yourself now that you got that one attack in, but it wasn't close to the kind of blow Shin would deal! He punches to kill, and he can kill with his punches! Compared to him..._ Hoji stopped thinking. He let his rage silence his mind and his eyes went white.

"**RRAAAAGGHH!"** he roared. Hoji pounced forward, a berserk flying leap, while Lora simply dodged. Hoji kicked into the ground halfway through his leap and caught Lora in her own flash-step to the side. With her neck folded into his arm Hoji slammed her into the ground and rolled forward to get back onto his feet. He turned quickly and jumped to Lora who was rolling onto her back to kick herself up onto her feet to recover. She failed as Hoji landed feet-together and arms pushing him down right on the space between her ribs. Lora was stunned. Even with the pain forcing its way up through her body, she couldn't even cough. She couldn't breathe. All she could do was see and hear as Hoji quickly descended on her with a barrage of punches straight to her face.

"What a monster" the mannish girl watching observed. She turned away and held her face in her broad and muscular hands. "I can't bear to watch this any longer! It's awful."

"Should we try and stop it?" another girl asked. "We'd be intruding on an honorable match, but if we don't she could die!"

"That bastard isn't killing any of us!" another girl exclaimed. She reached for her broadsword, sheathed in a form-fitting, curve-bladed sheathe across her back, but was stopped by a menacing pressure from behind. The girls all turned at once and the mannish-girl peeked through her fingers as their leader Ami Mai approached them in a patchy, non-tattered kimono. She glared the girls down, forcing them out of their unrest, and walked out to observe the battle. At that point the battle was easily over, of course. Lora refused to accept it.

_I won't let a perverted maniac be my better!_ She raged. Lora, whose mind had gone beyond her intentions of comeuppance and honorable combat, reached for the hilt of her blade. She drew it with a sharp singing of metal which froze Hoji in mid-punch. His back was exposed. Even if he dodged it, with her sword out and his own sword broken and useless, he likely wouldn't have as good a chance to fight back. Hoji's only reaction was to look back and try to see the sword before it reached him. It sliced through the air in an awkward, misguided stab, but stopped. Hoji rolled off of Lora's body and made an extra protective roll away before he stopped. He saw the sword stopped in the hand of another, the leader of the _Musha-onna_, Ami. Lora's breath returned but in fearful halting measures.

"Ami..." she whispered. "Ami, what...?" Her face was so badly beaten that she could hardly talk. Her leader, thankfully, understood what she was trying to say. Ami took Lora's slender blade from her own grip and tossed it at her. The blade sank into the ground just next to her face, slicing through her hair and just barely nicked through the swollen skin of her bruised, battered, beaten face.

"You have shamed your sisters" Ami proclaimed. "Drawing your sword against a swordless foe is an affront to out honor as warriors! Lora Rola, you disappoint me. **Leave this battlefield at once!**" Lora forced herself to sit up, though she could hardly move. Hoji stood up and raised objection.

"Tch!" he began. "Don't make her walk if she can't! That's cruel, even as a proper punishment! She was trying to stay alive! I flipped-out first, so this isn't her fault! I _was_ trying to kill her for a minute there!"

"Then you held back?" Ami snarled. "You dishonored one of my own in such a blatant way? Where is your pride? How can you call yourself a warrior?"

"Hold on" Hoji demanded. "If we were fighting to the death unarmed, you'd have no qualm. What if I let her draw her sword beforehand? What if I managed to use my sword at some point in the fight? Forget about honor for a second and think logically! You'd rather not see anyone die when you've already been razed by conflict, right?" Hoji hot defense didn't even faze Ami. She took a step toward him, ignoring Lora's loss of consciousness, and focused the full of her raging glare on the red X of his forehead.

"By not giving your full potential in a fight" Ami began, "what did you hope to accomplish in fighting?" Hoji scoffed and looked away.

"You don't understand" Hoji said.

"Enlighten me!" Ami shouted. She threw off her kimono and revealed her body. Her chest was wrapped with sarashi and her crotch covered with a fundoshi. "I will fight you until both of us understand!" The girls on the deck and Hoji in the grass were all in shock. The girls by their leader's own daring, brave act. Hoji's nose, in a reaction completely unrelated to pain or any attack he had endured in the battle, began to bleed.

_That's the most unfair advantage I've ever seen_ Hoji thought. His mouth cracked a twitchy grin.

* * *

A bit later, after Lora had been removed from the field and after Hoji had recovered from his nosebleed, a new battle began. Hoji removed his bloodied clothes but kept his pants in order to keep some semblance of modesty to his battle. Ami stood fearless and proud, hardly clothed at all, with her arms crossed impatiently.

"Prepare yourself to do battle" she declared. "I will give no quarter to you." Hoji met her glare and nodded at her. His head didn't nod back up, however, as it was stuck on her chest. She wasn't the most buxom of her league of women, but he could still see how tightly her breasts had been wrapped under her sarashi cloth. "What is it? Why aren't you ready yet? Do you have some prayer to recite or something?"

"Uh, no" Hoji said. He shook his head and slapped himself. _I've gotta get a grip. That other chick had bigger tits than this one but I managed to not notice somehow. Jeez. I've gotta keep my eyes open to victory. _With such a creed in mind, Hoji assumed his emotionless glare and struck a ready pose. Ami stood as well, feet squared and fists up, little style or form apart from her arms guarding her chest. Hoji focused himself on that guard, her slender but defined, powerful arms up in guard as pillars in front of her supply-squeezed, pressure-wrapped chest. The skin from her neck to the wrap around her body was glistening and wet in an anxious sweat. Her abdomen was openly exposed and defined better than Hoji's own masculine cut of a six-pack was.

Hoji's vision seemed to go blank for a second. It returned with him gazing up at the sky as his head was tilting up and his body was moving back against his will. In a mad rush, the moment that a battle had been properly ordained, Ami acted. She struck the first blow, a powerful straight to Hoji's face, and pushed him off of his otherwise sturdy guard. Hoji snapped back to his own attention and caught the ground. His legs swung up high following the pivot of his hands and his toes hit the ground with a denting smash. On all fours Hoji leaped into battle with a terrifying pounce attack. Ami leaned to the side and slid, her feet following her shoulders while staying lightly off the ground. She grabbed Hoji's arm and threw him, adding distance to his pounce that he didn't calculate. Hoji flipped himself as he flew through the air and skid across the ground to a stop. Ami rushed up on him just as he stood and started throwing punch after punch adding a grunt with each swing.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He let her arm sail past his face, leaned away from it and locked it between his forearm and bicep. "Where's your form?" he seethed. With her arm bound Hoji attacked. With his right arm he threw a punch and missed as she leaned away. Even with her arm locked she felt no pain and showed no discomfort in willingly twisting her shoulder a bit. She grabbed Hoji's extended arm by the wrist and lost it as he quickly retreated and released her from his grip. They squared off again, keeping a fair distance.

"Form?" Ami asked.

"Style" Hoji said. "Don't you have any style at all?"

"Why?" Ami asked. "Do I need it? I have my fists, I have my arms. I have both legs as well and all of my body to use. As long as I can beat you, what purpose does style have?" Hoji was struck. In his state Ami easily advanced in a flash-step and punched him in the gut. He was tense by nature and flexed his abs as hard as possible, reducing the injury. Still, Ami's power forced his stomach to buckle, and he was still hurt. Hoji took the blow and was thrown back by it. Ami rushed after him. He kicked before he landed, hitting her arm and stopping her in a half-step before she advanced again. Ami threw two punches a flash speed that Hoji blocked with his forearm. Hoji threw his own punch and slowly shifted his pose to match hers, formless and inelegant. Hoji wound his right arm and shoulder back far. Ami tried reaching his face with a hook but Hoji blocked with his left. Then she hooked and caught him right above the eye. Hoji read her punch and moved his head at the last second. With a growl Hoji wound his arm forward in a blurry, powerful blow. Ami jumped back, holding her arms up and slightly forward as she did.

Hoji grinned. His right hand was open, not curled in a tight fist, and his right leg was extended forward while he had been leaning back on his left the whole time. He switched the bending of his knees and extended his reach just enough to grab Ami's left wrist. She was stopped and planted her feet to try and swing him off. Hoji quickly sped behind her and grabbed her arm with his left hand. Ami was jerked back and immobilized with Hoji standing beside her, wrist in one hand and her arm just beneath the elbow in the other. He glared at her out of her sight and prompted her to turn with a snap and a growl.

"Let go!" she shouted. She kicked Hoji in the leg, again and again, and tried to punch him. He walked her in a circle, pushing on her and guiding her with her own arm in his control.

"Without form" Hoji began "or style or even a vaguely consistent technique you fall prey to some pretty basic pitfalls in a fistfight. You have to know this kind of stuff. What a default punch looks like, how long a maximum extension can be, proper fist rotation in mid-punch, too. What good is it going to do you to just swing at your enemy if they know how to dodge, read your attacks, and effectively screw you over defensively?"

"Shut up!" Ami shouted. She wound her leg far back and swung it around to Hoji's hip. There was a creaking sound from Hoji's leg, his bones grinding against each other in a painful way, which was quickly silenced as Ami's power wound down from her impact of her kick. Hoji growled at the pain but kept himself steady. He pushed his chest into Ami's arm and jerked his arms to put pressure on Ami's elbow, as if to try and bent it backwards. "**GET OFF!**" Ami roared. She swung her arm forward, carrying Hoji's weight with her berserk strength, and her wrist snapped and cracked. Ami's eyes went wide. The pain shot up her arm and registered into her head. She swung herself around and forced Hoji away. He slid on hands and feet along the ground and felt his foot tap on something with a light metallic clank. He looked under his chest and saw his sword sheathe in the grass where he had left it, having forgotten about it until just then.

"Style? Form? Elegance? Who cares!" Ami shouted. Her hand twitched and shook uncontrollably. The rest of her body followed out of rage. "As long as I have power, stamina, the pressing urge and determination that can kill! That's all I need! That's all I've ever needed! Style won't win a war! It can hardly count to win in a duel! This is a bout of honor! Don't cheapen it with your pathetic tricks and plays! **We must fight with all our strength and abandon ourselves as people! We are warriors! Not a man and a woman but two beasts locked in mortal combat! **_**How can you be this far if you can't understand that!**_" Hoji grabbed his sheathe and stood. He thrust it between his waist and his belt, and made sure that she saw it by resting his palm on the pommel of his sword.

_Tch_ Hoji thought. _That all sounds pretty familiar. Still, I just can't get used to it. No matter what I do, I can't focus right. I can't fight with her like I should be able to. She's powerful, merciless but she's honorable and admittedly hot as hell. I can't do this. I can't concentrate. Aside from the tits and ass and hair, it's like I'm trying to fight Shin again..._

Hoji snapped out of his thinking and brought up his guard within the split second of Ami's attack. She tackled him with both arms, keeping her broken wrist away from Hoji's body and the ground. Once on top of him Ami resorted to punching him with her good hand, much like how Hoji had nearly finished off Lora. Hoji blocked, however, with both arms in a cross over his face.

"That obnoxious mark on your head" Ami lowed as she punched against Hoji's arms "is just begging to be hit! Why else would you make a blood-colored mark on your body? **For fun?**"

"Well yeah" Hoji admitted. He reached out an arm to try and grab Ami's moving fist. She jerked it away and hooked into his face. Hoji used his other arm and sat up in a reach for Ami's broken wrist. She rose her arm up and slammed it down, just barely above where her wrist was broken, on Hoji's forehead. The back of Hoji's head hit against the ground, and a sudden loud ringing of metal against metal blasted off in his head.

_What a sight. You're getting your ass kicked by a girl. Ironic, isn't it?_ The voice that Hoji had missed sounded clearly inside his head. From the shadows of his still conscious vision, within the covered space of Ami's body, Hoji could see and hear the approaching swaying garments of his inner spirit. His Zanpakuto, Torakaze, gilded in silk and gold as a glistening warrior princess, just as Hoji remembered her to be.

_She's less of a chick_ Hoji defended _and more of a freak with tits._

_Then she's no challenge for you_ Torakaze said. _Shake her off and finish things up. You still have **that attack** to perform._ Hoji, despite the pain and rapid consistency of his own beatings, muscled out a wide and mad-looking grin. He grabbed Ami's neck with his risen legs and spiked her head into the ground. He rolled backwards and shook himself off. He wasn't too worse for wear, just a little head-blood and mouth-blood. Ami jumped up as well and rubbed her aching wrist for a moment. Hoji struck a pose, his fists were curled but the little, middle and thumb fingers were extended and pointing Ami down. His right arm was cocked back and risen up while the left was straight and forward. He was leaning his legs back and arching his back forward. His pose for a gallant victory-rush had been struck. His breathing slowed off into a meditative pre-pounce lowing. Like an animal, his steamy breath was let out in utter silence but picked up in a growl when his teeth parted.

"I'll show you" Hoji growled "how much ass my _style_ can kick out of your _brute strength!_" Ami poked her wrist and forced her limp hand into a fist through painful muscular straining. She was fighting as if it was her last fight in this life. That feeling echoed out as dread to her sisters watching, their fear for her life growing at an ever-steady rate...

* * *

Hoji cracked his knuckles and struck a basic pose, one side forward and the other drawn back. Ami brought her guard up again and ignored her twitching, pain-curled fist. Hoji sprung forward and started throwing wild, unaimed fists Ami's way. She leaned past them and blocked the near-misses. Hoji's form and style had seemingly broken down as he was attacking on an all-out offense. Ami threw a quick punch but her arm was pushed past Hoji's head in a quick protective jab to her arm.

"**Hissatsu!**" Hoji lowed. He leaned his body in and drove his fist into Ami's stomach. He stepped forward, blasting an additional push of power through his arm and into her body. Ami remained on the ground and sturdy until Hoji powered another push through. His entire body worked to punch her, from his toes to his head, all his muscles went into powering his arm and shoulder forward. Hoji threw so much force into his punch that his feet fractured and broke the ground that he pressed against until he was ankle-deep in his own crater.

"**JOU!"** He pushed her off. He jumped behind her and kicked her back to the ground. **"SHOU!"** Ami landed in a bounced and recovered in mid-air. Hoji was already upon her, raining down a barrage of fists and kicks. **"TORAOU!"** Hoji continued his onslaught, forcing her back until her back hit the wall. She was without retreat and was forced to defend. Hoji concentrated his punches onto her blocking arms and managed to snap her wrist out of its frozen fist. A shock of pain swelled up and stunned Ami. Her guard was forced off and Hoji commenced his epic beatdown finale. **"BOKUSATSU!"** After some length of him beating on Ami and shouting in rhythmic rapidity, Hoji planted a solid uppercut into Ami's chin and slowly pushed her up the face of the wall. **"KIBA!"** Ami was airborne. Hoji jumped up and followed, flying straight past her and stopping with a firm grip on the air. Unaware that he was exercising his own inherent kido powers in a straight-up unarmed duel, Hoji kicked off the air and drove both his legs in a cannon-strength drop kick straight between Ami's ribs. Finally, she coughed up blood and spit before dropping back-first into her own rocky crater.

"**OOOOOOOOUUUUUUUHHHH!"** The clouds parted above Hoji. A mighty wind stirred up! The forest around the manor was deafeningly loud with the sounds of trees being swept up in a terrible wind! The trees closest to the wall outside were uprooted and thrown off into the deeper stretches of the rolling forest. Hoji clutched his fist, his whole arm shaking with power and excited energy, and a vortex of wind swirled around his knuckles. A final attack was brewing. Ami had her eyes shut tight from the pain. She was immobilized for the most part. She managed to wake her body up with the coughing of hot blood onto her face and looked up at the visible winds ripping through the air around Hoji.

"_**OUDA!"**_ The final cry sounded the end of the battle. Hoji descended in a driving flight with fist extended at the ground. Ami retreated, pushing herself to fly across the ground as fast as her beaten body would allow her to. When Hoji hit the ground buckled. The entire grass-scape of the garden was kicked up in a myriad of chunks and pieces, all the ground destroyed and decimated. A gigantic crater was revealed as the dust and dirt was lifted high up into the air. The girls who were watching were blown back by the force of wind and Ami was pushed clear through the paper wall into the nearest hallway, dripping blood and sweat from her broken body.

From above, one man watched. The clandestine spy with all his body and face wrapped in colored bandages, saw from the roof the force of Hoji's attack. **A massive, tiger-paw shaped crater had replaced much of the garden's charming natural look**. Hoji was still inside that crater, standing erect and unwavering. His blood dripped down from his relaxed fingers and carefully off his nose to the ground. With a furious motion, Hoji grabbed his sword and unsheathed it, listening to the long metal ringing as the whole blade was drawn, **intact and repaired.** Hoji held it up high and pointed it to the parted clouds in the sky. The world started to settle again as the winds died down. Hoji had passed out standing but his body refused to give in, so he stood within his own magnificent ruin with only the admiration of Torakaze to comfort him.

That was much better than last time she praised. Of course, it'd be more impressive if you could do that by yourself...


End file.
